Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act of 2023

[Congressional Bills 118th Congress] [From the U.S. Government Publishing Office] [H.R. 4540 Introduced in House (IH)] <DOC> 118th CONGRESS 1st Session H. R. 4540 To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes. _______________________________________________________________________ IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES July 11, 2023 Mr. Cuellar (for himself and Mr. Smith of New Jersey) introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce _______________________________________________________________________ A BILL To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to establish a program to provide grants to suppliers of water for the purpose of making infrastructure improvements to public water systems, and for other purposes. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. This Act may be cited as the ``Water Infrastructure Enhancement Act of 2023''. SEC. 2. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT. Part E of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j et seq.) is amended by adding at the end the following: ``SEC. 1459H. WATER INFRASTRUCTURE ENHANCEMENT. ``(a) Definitions.--In this section: ``(1) Area of persistent poverty.--The term `area of persistent poverty' means-- ``(A) any county (or equivalent jurisdiction) in which, during the 30-year period ending on the date of enactment of this section, 20 percent or more of the population continually lived in poverty, as measured by-- ``(i) the 1990 decennial census; ``(ii) the 2000 decennial census; and ``(iii) the most recent annual small area income and poverty estimate of the Bureau of the Census; ``(B) any census tract with a poverty rate of not less than 20 percent, as measured by the 5-year data series available from the American Community Survey of the Bureau of