New WATER Act
Latest action · Feb 7, 2017 Referred to the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans.
Progress
Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.
- IntroducedJan 11, 2017
- Passed HouseNot reached
- Passed SenateNot reached
- To the PresidentNot reached
- Became lawNot reached
Summary
New Water Available To Every Reclamation State Act or the New WATER Act
This bill authorizes the Department of the Interior, for 15 years after this bill's enactment, to provide financial assistance, such as secured loans or loan guarantees, to entities that contract under federal reclamation law to carry out water projects within the 17 western states served by the Bureau of Reclamation, other states where the Bureau is authorized to provide project assistance, Alaska, and Hawaii. Projects eligible for assistance include:
- non-federal water infrastructure projects that would contribute to a safe, adequate water supply for domestic, agricultural, environmental, or municipal and industrial use;
- projects for enhanced energy efficiency in the operation of a water system;
- projects for accelerated repair and replacement of aging water distribution facilities;
- brackish or sea water desalination projects; and
- the acquisition of real property or an interest therein for water storage, reclaimed or recycled water, or wastewater that is integral to such a project.
To be eligible for assistance, a project must be deemed creditworthy. Eligible project costs must be reasonably anticipated to be at least $20 million.
Interior shall establish criteria for project selection and may enter into a master credit agreement for projects secured by a common security pledge on terms acceptable to it.
Interior may enter into agreements with obligors to make secured loans to finance or refinance eligible project costs or to refinance long-term project obligations or federal credit instruments to provide additional funding capacity for the completion, enhancement, or expansion of a project.
The total amount of federal assistance for a project shall not exceed 80% of its total cost.
Interior shall establish: (1) a repayment schedule for each secured loan based on the useful life of the project, and (2) a uniform system to service the federal credit instruments made available under this bill.
Interior shall report biennially on the financial performance of the projects that receive assistance under this bill.
Cosponsors 9
Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Jan 11, 2017 to Sep 8, 2017, with 5 there on the day it was introduced.
| Seat | Cosponsor | Signed on | |
|---|---|---|---|
| R-WA | Dan Newhouse | Original | Jan 11, 2017 |
| R-CA | Doug LaMalfa | Original | Jan 11, 2017 |
| D-CA | Jim Costa | Original | Jan 11, 2017 |
| D-CA | John Garamendi | Original | Jan 11, 2017 |
| R-CA | Ken Calvert | Original | Jan 11, 2017 |
| R-ND | Kevin Cramer | Aug 18, 2017 | |
| R-CA | David G. Valadao | Sep 1, 2017 | |
| R-CA | Stephen Knight | Sep 1, 2017 | |
| R-OK | Tom Cole | Sep 8, 2017 |
Actions 3
Everything that happened, newest first.
- Feb 7, 2017Referred to the Subcommittee on Water, Power and Oceans.
- Jan 11, 2017Introduced in House
- Jan 11, 2017Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Subjects
Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: Water Resources Development.
Text 1
Each version as it was printed, newest first.
- Jan 11, 2017Introduced in House
Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.
