Congress funds water infrastructure with corporate tax hike, targets equity
H.R. 3376 — Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 2025 · Filed by Bonnie Watson Coleman (D-NJ) · 90 cosponsors · Introduced May 13, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill establishes a dedicated trust fund for water and sewer infrastructure by raising the federal corporate tax rate from 21% to 24.5%, generating an estimated $35 billion annually (capped at the larger of $35B or one-twentieth of EPA's 20-year water infrastructure need). The fund distributes money to states, tribes, rural areas, and colonias for drinking water systems, wastewater treatment, lead service line replacement, PFOA/PFAS contamination remediation, job training for water operators, and affordability protections. It requires prevailing wages and project labor agreements on funded projects, prioritizes low-income and disadvantaged communities for job training, and mandates an EPA study on water affordability, discrimination, and civil rights compliance.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is a dedicated revenue stream (corporate tax increase) funding water infrastructure with explicit equity, affordability, and civil rights components. It is a public investment bill, not a tax cut or deregulation.
What the text implies
- The 24.5% corporate tax rate is permanent and applies to all taxable years after 2024, creating an ongoing revenue stream; the bill does not sunset or phase out the rate increase.
- The trust fund operates 'without fiscal year limitation,' meaning appropriated funds do not expire, allowing multi-year project planning and reducing year-to-year uncertainty.
- Section 6 permits states to use revolving loan funds to purchase privately owned water systems from 'unwilling sellers' and to cancel private operation contracts; this may accelerate municipalization of private water utilities.
- The 50% minimum subsidization requirement in state revolving funds means at least half of capitalization grants must go to grants (not loans), shifting cost burden away from low-income communities.
- Job training grants prioritize union and labor-management partnerships, potentially increasing union membership in water sector employment.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill funds critical water infrastructure in underserved communities, prioritizes low-income households and disadvantaged populations for job training and affordability protections, and mandates civil rights compliance monitoring. The corporate tax increase is the mechanism, not a cost to ordinary citizens. Prevailing wage and project labor agreement requirements protect worker compensation.
Who stands to gain
- state and local water utilities (grant recipients)
- rural water systems and tribal water authorities
- construction and engineering firms (project labor agreements increase labor costs, potentially favor
- labor unions and apprenticeship programs (job training funding and project labor agreement requireme
- water operator training providers and community colleges
Named in the bill
EPA (Environmental Protection Agency), USDA (Department of Agriculture), HHS (Department of Health and Human Services), Department of Labor, Internal Revenue Service, Safe Drinking Water Act, Federal Water Pollution Control Act, Indian Health Service, State revolving loan funds, Colonias (border region low-income communities)
Where it stands
90 cosponsors: 90 Democrats.
- May 13, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- May 13, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Education and Workforce and House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Subcommittee on Water Resources and Environment”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 lobbying clients named this bill on 1 disclosure filings across 1 quarter, Jun 2026 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $240,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 45 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 0% of bills with at least one filing.
- National Right to Work Committee — $240,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 16, 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 (22,499 characters) on Aug 29, 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 Jun 2026 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.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
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