Ohio River gets $350M restoration plan with tribal voice and public oversight
S. 3796 — Ohio River Restoration Program Act of 2026 · Filed by John Fetterman (D-PA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Feb 5, 2026 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill creates a new Ohio River Basin Restoration Program within the EPA to coordinate water quality, habitat, and ecological restoration across 15 states and tribal lands in the Ohio River watershed. The EPA will establish a Program Office with a director, form an advisory council of state and tribal representatives, develop restoration goals and a multi-year action plan, and award grants to states, nonprofits, and other entities to carry out restoration projects—with $350 million authorized annually through 2031.
Why we flagged it
The bill's core mechanism is establishing a federal-state-tribal coordination structure and funding stream for large-scale water quality and ecological restoration across a 15-state watershed. It is a public-interest environmental program, not a regulatory change, tax provision, or private carve-out.
What the text implies
- The bill grants the Program Director broad discretion to award grants to 'any non-Federal entity' meeting qualification criteria, potentially creating opportunities for political favoritism in project selection if advisory council oversight is weak.
- Requirement to prioritize 'natural infrastructure and nature-based solutions' may conflict with existing Corps of Engineers navigation and flood-control projects, creating potential interagency friction over project compatibility.
- Five-year review cycle for actionable goals and action plan means restoration priorities may lag behind emerging environmental data or climate impacts; no mechanism for emergency mid-cycle updates.
- Public website publication of action plan and annual reports creates transparency, but no enforcement mechanism if EPA fails to meet stated restoration goals or timelines.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Citizens in the Ohio River Basin gain improved water quality, flood resilience, habitat protection, and recreational access through a coordinated, publicly transparent restoration program. The bill mandates public engagement, advisory council representation from states and tribes, and annual reporting—strengthening democratic accountability over a major regional environmental asset.
Who stands to gain
- State environmental agencies (grant recipients)
- Nonprofit environmental organizations (grant recipients)
- Tribal governments (grant recipients and advisory council members)
- Institutions of higher education (eligible grant recipients for research/monitoring)
- Engineering and construction firms (indirect beneficiaries through project implementation contracts)
Named in the bill
Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Ohio River National Program Office, Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, States: Ohio, Kentucky, West Virginia, Pennsylvania, Indiana, Illinois, New York, Virginia, Maryland, Tribal Governments (federally recognized), U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Bureau of Indian Affairs, Federal Water Pollution Control Act
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Feb 5, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 5, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
8 lobbying clients named this bill on 9 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $5,118,872 in lobbying spend. A filing names 13 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 88% of bills with at least one filing.
John Fetterman, the sponsor, reported $43,875 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Chemistry Council — $2,570,000 on 1 filing
- Nature Conservancy — $900,000 on 1 filing
- National Mining Association — $820,000 on 1 filing
- The American Waterways Operators — $320,000 on 1 filing
- Waterways Council Inc — $234,872 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 (11,907 characters) on Nov 2, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,927 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 2026-11-02.
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