Fiscal Year 2026 U.S. EPA Funding/Association of State Drinking Water Administrators: Testimony to U.S. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, & Related Agencies Appropriations

The Association of State Drinking Water Administrators (“ASDWA”) submitted testimony to the United States House of Representatives Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, & Related Agencies.

The testimony addressed Fiscal Year 2026 funding for the United States Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”).

ASDWA describes itself as the professional association serving state drinking water programs.

ASDWA’s testimony was submitted by J. Alan Roberson, P.E., who serves as Executive Director of the organization. The testimony included the following recommendations:

• All Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) be funded without cutting funding for the State Revolving Loan Funds (SRFs) capitalization grants. SRF capitalization grant reductions are negatively impacting state and territorial drinking water programs.
• Increase funding for all environmental programmatic grants, with an immediate increase of $85 million for the Public Water Supply Supervision (PWSS) Program to a total of $200.9 million, noting the larger funding gap identified in the ASDWA’s 2020 Resource Needs Report. This report determined that the PWSS funding gap in 2020 would be $375 million, increasing to $469 million by 2029. The $85 million in immediate additional funding is necessary for the programmatic efforts on the initial lead service line inventories under the Lead and Copper Rule Revisions (LCRR), the required efforts for the implementation of the final Lead and Copper Rule Improvements (LCRI), the final regulation for Per- and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS), and the final Consumer Confidence Report (CCR) Rule Revisions.
• Fund both the Drinking Water and Clean Water SRFs to the full authorizations of $3 billion each.

Congressionally directed spending recommendations include:

• Congressionally Directed Spending (CDS) be funded without cutting funding to the SRFs.
• Immediate increase of PWSS funding by $85 million due to the convergence of multiple mandates in 2024.
• PWSS Program be funded at $200.9 million in FY26 (a $85 million increase), recognizing that this increase would not close the funding gap.
• Fund the drinking water state revolving fund (DWSRF) at the full authorization - $3 billion.
• Increase funding for the state and territorial drinking water programs in FY26 to protect public health and drinking water across the nation. States are willing and committed partners, however, additional federal funding is needed to meet the ongoing and growing regulatory and infrastructure needs. Strong state and territorial drinking water programs supported by the federal-state partnership will ensure the quality of drinking water in this country will continue to improve so the public knows that a glass of water is safe to drink no matter where they live.

A copy of the testimony can be downloaded here.