[Congressional Bills 114th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 611 Enrolled Bill (ENR)]

        S.611

                     One Hundred Fourteenth Congress

                                 of the

                        United States of America


                          AT THE FIRST SESSION

          Begun and held at the City of Washington on Tuesday,
           the sixth day of January, two thousand and fifteen


                                 An Act


 
To amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to reauthorize technical assistance 
         to small 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 ``Grassroots Rural and Small Community 
Water Systems Assistance Act''.
SEC. 2. FINDINGS.
    Congress finds that--
        (1) the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (Public Law 
    104-182) authorized technical assistance for small and rural 
    communities to assist those communities in complying with 
    regulations promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 
    U.S.C. 300f et seq.);
        (2) technical assistance and compliance training--
            (A) ensures that Federal regulations do not overwhelm the 
        resources of small and rural communities; and
            (B) provides small and rural communities lacking technical 
        resources with the necessary skills to improve and protect 
        water resources;
        (3) across the United States, more than 90 percent of the 
    community water systems serve a population of less than 10,000 
    individuals;
        (4) small and rural communities have the greatest difficulty 
    providing safe, affordable public drinking water and wastewater 
    services due to limited economies of scale and lack of technical 
    expertise; and
        (5) in addition to being the main source of compliance 
    assistance, small and rural water technical assistance has been the 
    main source of emergency response assistance in small and rural 
    communities.
SEC. 3. SENSE OF CONGRESS.
    It is the sense of Congress that--
        (1) to assist small and rural communities most effectively, the 
    Administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency should 
    prioritize the types of technical assistance that are most 
    beneficial to those communities, based on input from those 
    communities; and
        (2) local support is the key to making Federal assistance 
    initiatives work in small and rural communities to the maximum 
    benefit.
SEC. 4. FUNDING PRIORITIES.
    Section 1442(e) of the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300j-
1(e)) is amended--
        (1) by designating the first through seventh sentences as 
    paragraphs (1) through (7), respectively;
        (2) in paragraph (5) (as so designated), by striking ``1997 
    through 2003'' and inserting ``2015 through 2020''; and
        (3) by adding at the end the following:
        ``(8) Nonprofit organizations.--
            ``(A) In general.--The Administrator may use amounts made 
        available to carry out this section to provide grants or 
        cooperative agreements to nonprofit organizations that provide 
        to small public water systems onsite technical assistance, 
        circuit-rider technical assistance programs, multistate, 
        regional technical assistance programs, onsite and regional 
        training, assistance with implementing source water protection 
        plans, and assistance with implementing monitoring plans, 
        rules, regulations, and water security enhancements.
            ``(B) Preference.--To ensure that technical assistance 
        funding is used in a manner that is most beneficial to the 
        small and rural communities of a State, the Administrator shall 
        give preference under this paragraph to nonprofit organizations 
        that, as determined by the Administrator, are the most 
        qualified and experienced in providing training and technical 
        assistance to small public water systems and that the small 
        community water systems in that State find to be the most 
        beneficial and effective.
            ``(C) Limitation.--No grant or cooperative agreement 
        provided or otherwise made available under this section may be 
        used for litigation pursuant to section 1449.''.

                               Speaker of the House of Representatives.

                            Vice President of the United States and    
                                               President of the Senate.