Water Agency and Transparency Enhancement Review (WATER) Act

[Congressional Bills 119th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 6639 Introduced in House (IH)]

<DOC>






119th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 6639

    To codify certain sections of Executive Order 14181 relating to 
emergency measures to provide water resources in California and improve 
                  disaster response in certain areas.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 11, 2025

  Mr. Gray (for himself and Mr. Costa) introduced the following bill; 
        which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To codify certain sections of Executive Order 14181 relating to 
emergency measures to provide water resources in California and improve 
                  disaster response in certain areas.

    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 Agency and Transparency 
Enhancement Review (WATER) Act''.

SEC. 2. PLANS TO ADDRESS REGULATORY HURDLES FOR MAJOR WATER-SUPPLY AND 
              STORAGE PROJECTS.

    (a) Identification of Major Water-Supply and Storage Projects.--The 
Secretary of the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall identify 
all ongoing or potential major water-supply and storage projects 
(including surface and ground water storage projects, aquifer recharge 
projects, and State conveyance projects) within the State of California 
for which they have joint responsibility under section 7(a) of the 
Endangered Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1536(a)) or individual 
responsibilities under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 
(42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.).
    (b) Plans.--
            (1) Designation of compliance officials.--With respect to 
        the projects identified under subsection (a), the Secretary of 
        the Interior and the Secretary of Commerce shall each designate 
        one Federal official to coordinate each agency's respective 
        compliance responsibilities under the National Environmental 
        Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and the Endangered 
        Species Act of 1973 (16 U.S.C. 1531 et seq.).
            (2) Identification of regulatory hurdles.--Not later than 
        30 days after the date of enactment of this section, each 
        Federal official designated under paragraph (1) shall--
                    (A) identify any regulatory hurdles that unduly 
                burden each project identified under subsection (a);
                    (B) identify any recent changes in applicable State 
                or Federal law that may impact such projects from a 
                regulatory perspective, including changes made by the 
                Fiscal Responsibility Act of 2023 (Public Law 118-5); 
                and
                    (C) develop a proposed plan, for review by the 
                Secretaries, to appropriately suspend, revise, or 
                rescind any regulations or procedures that unduly 
                burden such projects and are not necessary to protect 
                the public interest or otherwise comply with the law.
            (3) Coordination.--In carrying out paragraph (2), each 
        Federal official designated under paragraph (1) shall 
        coordinate and share all appropriate information that will 
        enable improved efficiencies.
    (c) Unduly Burden Defined.--In this section, the term ``unduly 
burden'' means to unnecessarily obstruct, delay, curtail, impede, or 
otherwise impose significant costs on the permitting, utilization, 
transmission, delivery, or supply of water resources and water 
infrastructure.
                                 <all>