With the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act supplemental five-year water infrastructure funding set to expire Sept. 30, local government and water stakeholders are urging federal lawmakers to reauthorize core water programs and fully fund water infrastructure programs in fiscal year 2027.
The 2021 IIJA allocated $50 billion for water infrastructure over five years, divided across five pots under the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund, with specific funding to replace lead pipes and address PFAS and other contaminants. The National League of Cities is asking Congress to maintain the IIJA’s authorization amount — $5.85 billion each to the Clean Water SRF and the Drinking Water SRF — and reauthorize grant and technical assistance programs to address PFAS, lead pipes and other water infrastructure projects in FY27.
“Reauthorizing those programs is one of our top priorities,” Carolyn Berndt, legislative director, sustainability, told Smart Cities Dive. “It’s a critical time because we believe the committees are developing this legislation now.”
While the House Appropriations Committee has begun advancing FY27 spending bills, including measures addressing transportation infrastructure funding that also expires Sept. 30, Congress has not yet introduced major legislation to reauthorize Environmental Protection Agency programs such as the Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs, PFAS grant programs, lead service line replacement programs and other IIJA-funded water programs that expire Sept. 30, she said.
Wastewater and stormwater systems will need $630 billion, and drinking water systems will need $625 billion over the next 20 years to keep up with infrastructure maintenance and comply with federal laws, according to Environmental Protection Agency reports from 2024 and 2023, respectively. But President Donald Trump’s FY27 budget request proposes cutting Clean Water and Drinking Water SRFs from $2.7 billion in FY26 to $305 million and the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act — which offers low-cost credit assistance for communities to address emerging contaminants and lead, invests in resilience and cybersecurity, supports water reuse, expands access for underserved communities, and strengthens local financing capacity — by $64.6 million, to $8 million, according to NLC.
“With the expiration of the infrastructure law funding and the President’s proposed FY27 cuts to water infrastructure programs, cities and states are facing a potential funding cliff when it comes to meeting local needs on drinking water, wastewater and stormwater infrastructure,” Berndt wrote in a May 15 blog post.
The Senate Environment and Public Works Committee may be the first to introduce water legislation, perhaps as early as this month, Berndt said. “If the general idea is to have all of these bills moving through committee and onto the chamber floors by August recess, there’s a short window for that process, and it starts at the committee level,” she said.
A critical juncture
EPW and the House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee are also negotiating the Water Resources Development Act, a recurring package to reauthorize infrastructure projects for flood control, navigation, environmental restoration and port maintenance that could become a vehicle for water infrastructure reauthorization legislation, according to Berndt. “That’s something Congress does every two years on a bipartisan basis, and there’s no reason to expect that won’t continue this year,” she said.
The House Appropriations Committee on May 20 approved the FY27 Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, an annual spending bill that funds agencies including the Bureau of Reclamation and Army Corps of Engineers. That bill earmarks $1.84 billion for the Bureau of Reclamation’s Water and Related Resources account to prioritize projects that increase water supply and support drought response and $201 million for water storage projects.
A broad coalition of municipal groups and water stakeholders, in a May 21 letter, urged members of the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior, Environment and related agencies to sustain and strengthen funding for the SRFs and the WIFIA. “Economic growth and competitiveness depend on ensuring sufficient supplies of water, fit for purpose for our companies and for the communities where we operate, protecting their quality of life,” the letter states.
“Our nation’s water infrastructure is at a critical juncture,” the National Association of Clean Water Agencies wrote in a March 3 letter to EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin. “This has been made clear by the recent sewage spill in the Potomac River and the herculean efforts taken to contain it and repair the damaged infrastructure. This is just one example of the challenges communities face, including rising costs to maintain and modernize aging infrastructure and meet Clean Water Act compliance obligations while also confronting new and evolving demands—including emerging contaminants, increasingly complex water quality requirements, system resilience, cybersecurity threats, climate impacts, and the need to ensure affordable service for Americans nationwide.”
