Title: Western Tribal Water Infrastructure Act of 2021
Policy area: Native Americans

Summary:
Western Tribal Water Infrastructure Act of 2021
This bill reauthorizes through FY2024, and expands, the Indian Reservation Drinking Water Program.
Specifically, the bill directs the Environmental Protection Agency to connect, expand, or repair existing public water systems that are on Indian reservations or off-reservation sites that serve tribes in the Columbia River Basin or its adjacent coastal river basins. Currently, only projects that are on Indian reservations in the Upper Missouri River Basin or the Upper Rio Grande Basin are eligible for the program.

[Congressional Bills 117th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 421 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

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117th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 421

 To amend the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 to expand the 
   Indian reservation drinking water program, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                           February 24, 2021

Mr. Wyden (for himself and Mr. Merkley) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To amend the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 to expand the 
   Indian reservation drinking water program, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Western Tribal Water Infrastructure 
Act of 2021''.

SEC. 2. INDIAN RESERVATION DRINKING WATER PROGRAM.

    Section 2001 of the America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 (42 
U.S.C. 300j-3c note; Public Law 115-270) is amended--
            (1) in subsection (a)--
                    (A) in the matter preceding paragraph (1), by 
                striking ``Subject to the availability of 
                appropriations, the Administrator'' and inserting ``The 
                Administrator'';
                    (B) in paragraph (1), by striking ``and'' at the 
                end;
                    (C) in paragraph (2), by striking the period at the 
                end and inserting ``; and''; and
                    (D) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(3) 10 eligible projects described in subsection (b) that 
        are within--
                    ``(A) the Columbia River Basin; or
                    ``(B) a coastal basin adjacent to the Columbia 
                River.'';
            (2) in subsection (b)(1)--
                    (A) by striking ``is on a reservation'' and 
                inserting the following: ``is on--
                    ``(A) a reservation'';
                    (B) in subparagraph (A) (as so designated), by 
                striking ``and'' at the end and inserting ``or''; and
                    (C) by adding at the end the following:
                    ``(B) an off-reservation site that serves an Indian 
                Tribe described in subsection (c)(2)(B); and'';
            (3) in subsection (c)--
                    (A) by striking the subsection designation and 
                heading and all that follows through ``In carrying 
                out'' and inserting the following:
    ``(c) Requirements.--
            ``(1) Upper missouri river basin.--In carrying out''; and
                    (B) by adding at the end the following:
            ``(2) Columbia river basin.--In carrying out the program 
        under subsection (a)(3), the Administrator of the Environmental 
        Protection Agency shall--
                    ``(A) give priority to projects that respond to 
                emergency situations where a lack of access to clean 
                drinking water threatens the health of Tribal 
                populations;
                    ``(B) select not fewer than 1 eligible project that 
                serves 1 or more Tribal communities of federally 
                recognized Indian Tribes the Federal recognition of 
                which has been terminated and subsequently restored; 
                and
                    ``(C) ensure that not fewer than 1 eligible project 
                under that subsection is carried out in--
                            ``(i) the area described in subparagraph 
                        (A) of that subsection; and
                            ``(ii) an area described in subparagraph 
                        (B) of that subsection.'';
            (4) by redesignating subsection (d) as subsection (e);
            (5) by inserting after subsection (c) the following:
    ``(d) Federal Share.--The Federal share of a project carried out 
under this section shall be 100 percent.''; and
            (6) in subsection (e) (as so redesignated), by striking 
        ``$20,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2019 through 2022'' and 
        inserting ``$50,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2021 through 
        2024''.
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