S. 783 expands federal assistance available to rural communities struggling to maintain water, wastewater, and waste disposal systems. The bill allows the U.S. Department of Agriculture to provide grants, zero-percent interest loans, and one-percent interest loans to eligible rural water systems, as well as forgive or modify existing loan terms and refinance other water-related loans. The assistance targets systems that need resources to protect public health and safety, or systems in economically disadvantaged areas where residents struggle to afford water services. To qualify communities for assistance based on financial hardship, the Secretary of Agriculture must establish a measure of water affordability (comparing water costs to household income) and identify criteria for determining economically distressed areas. The bill does not specify funding amounts or implementation timelines.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.