Congress funds cybersecurity help for small-town water systems
H.R. 2109 — Cybersecurity for Rural Water Systems Act · Filed by Donald Davis (D-NC) · 5 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 14, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill adds cybersecurity technical assistance to an existing USDA rural water and wastewater support program, requiring it to help small water systems (serving fewer than 10,000 people) assess cyber vulnerabilities and implement protections. It also increases the program's annual funding from $25 million to $32.5 million for fiscal years 2026–2030, with $7.5 million per year dedicated to cybersecurity work.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative mechanism is to expand an existing USDA technical assistance program to include cybersecurity services for small rural water systems and increase its funding. It is a straightforward public-infrastructure protection measure with no private carve-outs or hidden riders.
What the text implies
- The $7.5M annual cybersecurity allocation is a subset of the $32.5M total, meaning the remaining $25M continues to fund non-cybersecurity circuit rider services; the bill does not specify how that $25M is distributed among other water/wastewater assistance categories.
- Rural water systems serving 10,000+ persons are explicitly excluded from the cybersecurity assistance mandate, creating a potential equity gap for mid-sized systems that may also lack cyber resources but fall outside the program's scope.
- The bill does not establish performance metrics, audit requirements, or accountability mechanisms for how the $7.5M cybersecurity funds are deployed or whether systems actually implement recommended protections.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Rural water systems serving small populations face significant cybersecurity risks but often lack resources to assess or address them; this bill provides federal technical assistance and funding to help them protect critical infrastructure and public water supplies from cyber threats at no direct cost to the systems themselves.
Who stands to gain
- Rural water and wastewater utilities (public entities)
- USDA circuit rider program contractors and technical assistance providers
Named in the bill
USDA (Department of Agriculture), Consolidated Farm and Rural Development Act, Section 306(a)(22), Rural water systems, Circuit rider program
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 2 Republicans.
- Mar 14, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 14, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Agriculture”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $810,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 16 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Donald Davis, the sponsor, reported $1,617,446 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Rural Water Association — $420,000 on 1 filing
- American Water Works Association — $250,000 on 2 filings
- With Honor Action, Inc. — $140,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (1,093 characters) on May 21, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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