REAUTHORIZATION
CIFA works to build congressional support for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, successful, proven state-federal partnerships for water infrastructure investment.
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2020 Legislation Impacting the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds
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Reauthorization of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund
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U.S. Senate
On April 29, the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously passed America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2020 (S. 914), which reauthorizes the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
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Funding Levels:
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2022: $2.5 billion
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2023: $3 billion
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2024: $3.5 billion
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Additional Subsidization
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Mandates "not less than" 10% of the capitalization grant be used for additional subsidization "to the extent that there are sufficient applications."
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Technical Assistance
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Allows up to 2% of the capitalization grant for technical assistance provided by a not-for-profit organization.
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U.S. House of Representatives
On October 29, 2019, the U.S. House of Representatives Transportation & Infrastructure Committee unanimously passed the Water Quality Protection and Job Creation Act of 2019 (H.R. 1497), which reauthorizes the Clean Water State Revolving Fund.
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Funding Levels:
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2021: $2.4 billion
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2022: $2.6 billion
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2023: $2.8 billion
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2024: $3 billion
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2025: $3 billion
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Green Project Reserve
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Mandates 15% of the capitalization grant be used for green infrastructure, energy and water efficiency projects or other environmentally innovative activities, as long as there are applications.
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Cost and Effectiveness Analysis
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Modifies the requirement of the cost-effectiveness analysis from “energy conservation” to “efficient energy use (including through the implementation of technologies to recapture and reuse energy produced in the treatment of wastewater).”
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Workforce
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Allows states to allocate 1% of the annual capitalization grant to fund a workforce development program.
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Additional Subsidization
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Adds grants as an eligible form of additional subsidization.
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Mandates 10% of capitalization grant be used for additional subsidization (grants, loan forgiveness, negative interest loans).
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Maintains cap on state-directed additional subsidization at 30%.
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Simplifies the calculation for determining the cap on additional subsidization to a flat 30% of the capitalization grant.
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Allows states to use bond proceeds (i.e. the 10-year average of state contributions that exceed the state match requirement) for additional subsidization beyond the 30% cap.
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2020 Authorizations and Mandates for the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
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U.S. Senate
On May 6, the Environment and Public Works Committee unanimously passed the Drinking Water Infrastructure Act of 2020 (S. 3590).
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Additional Subsidization
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Mandates "not less than" 14% of the capitalization grant be used for additional subsidization "to the extent that there are sufficient applications." (America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018 mandated 6% of the capitalization grant be used for additional subsidization for disadvantaged communities.)
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Increased Authorization for Emerging Contaminants
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Increases the authorization for grants to address emerging contaminants through the Drinking Water SRFs from $100 million to $300 million for 2021 through 2024. (The original authorization was enacted in the National Defense Authorization Act of 2020 which passed on December 20, 2019.)
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Requires all funding to be used for additional subsidization and only in the form of a grant.​
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​Reauthorization of the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund
America's Water Infrastructure Act of 2018, which became law on October 23, 2018, reauthorized the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund.
Funding levels:
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2019: $1.174 billion
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2020: $1.3 billion
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2021: $1.95 billion
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​Policy changes:
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Authorizes an additional $100 million in capitalization grants for areas that are impacted by natural disaster and meet certain criteria.
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Maintains Davis-Bacon prevailing wage requirements and extends American Iron and Steel requirements through 2023.
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Allows loan terms beyond 30 years to the life of the project.
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Establishes a minimum of 6% and a maximum of 35% for additional subsidization for disadvantaged communities.
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Requires the Government Accountability Office (GAO) to conduct a report on the cross-cutting requirements to “identify demonstrations of compliance with a State or local environmental law that may be substantially equivalent to any demonstration required by the Administrator for compliance with a Federal cross-cutting requirement.”
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Requires EPA to implement a project to collect information about best practices from states, including efforts to streamline the application process, provide state assistance with applications, offer incentives for partnering between large and small utilities, improve management, and evaluate operations.
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Requires an assessment of the cost to replace lead service lines to be included in a needs survey.
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