Federal water grant targets PFAS cleanup in poor communities
H.R. 8027 — Advanced Wastewater Treatment Assistance Act of 2026 · Filed by Haley Stevens (D-MI) · 4 cosponsors · Introduced Mar 19, 2026 · Referred to committee
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill creates a $1 billion federal grant program (2026–2030) for states to fund advanced wastewater treatment projects, with at least 49% of funds reserved for disadvantaged communities and rural/tribal systems. It also directs the EPA to commission a 5-year study on how well advanced treatment technologies remove emerging contaminants like PFAS and nanomaterials.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is a straightforward federal grant authorization for wastewater treatment, with a public-health focus on disadvantaged communities and emerging contaminants. No deregulation, liability shield, or private carve-out is present.
What the text implies
- The bill does not specify which 'advanced wastewater treatment' technologies qualify, delegating definition to EPA — this creates regulatory discretion that could favor certain vendors or technologies over others, though the public-interest framing (PFAS removal) suggests the intent is genuine.
- The 49% set-aside for disadvantaged communities is a floor, not a ceiling — states may direct more than half of funds to underserved areas, but the bill does not require it, potentially allowing some states to minimize investment in the poorest communities.
- Cost-sharing waiver for disadvantaged communities is a significant benefit, but the bill does not define 'qualified disadvantaged community' in full — it cross-references section 603(i)(1)(A) of the Clean Water Act, which is not reproduced here, creating a reading limit on the scope of the waiver.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill directs substantial federal funding to water infrastructure in disadvantaged and rural communities, addressing a documented public-health gap in wastewater treatment and emerging contaminant removal. The 49% set-aside for underserved areas and the PFAS/nanomaterial study serve broad public health interests without creating private carve-outs or liability shields.
Who stands to gain
- wastewater treatment equipment manufacturers
- engineering and construction firms specializing in water infrastructure
- municipal and regional water authorities (as grant recipients)
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST), National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine, State governments, Rural, small, and tribal publicly owned treatment works, Public regional water providers
Where it stands
4 cosponsors: 3 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Mar 19, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Mar 19, 2026 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure”
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 $20,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 5 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.
Haley Stevens, the sponsor, reported $1,745,251 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- Los Angeles County Sanitation District — $20,000 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 (3,560 characters) on Apr 14, 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. 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.
“Federal water grant targets PFAS cleanup in poor communities” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr8027 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.