This bill amends the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act to create a narrowly tailored funding route for groundwater recharge, aquifer storage, and water source substitution efforts. Rather than providing a new appropriation, it authorizes the Secretary to draw small annual amounts from existing unobligated IIJA balances to support the program that already exists in section 40910.
Why it matters: the amendment gives program administrators a predictable, though modest, funding stream for technical and financial assistance over a six-year window. For water managers in drought-prone states, the change is a pragmatic attempt to move money to planning, technical support, and pilot activities without creating a standalone appropriation — but it also relies on leftover balances from other IIJA allocations, which limits scale and creates uncertainty.
At a Glance
What It Does
The bill adds subsection (g) to section 40910 of the IIJA, permitting the Secretary to use unobligated balances of amounts made available under section 40901 to provide funding to carry out the assistance authority in section 40910(a). It specifies $3,000,000 per fiscal year for each year from 2026 through 2031.
Who It Affects
Directly affected actors include the federal office identified as “the Secretary” in the IIJA provision, state and local water agencies that apply for technical or financial assistance under section 40910(a), and existing IIJA program recipients whose unobligated balances are the potential source of the transfers.
Why It Matters
The amendment creates a flexible, short-term funding pathway to support groundwater resilience activities without a new line-item appropriation. That flexibility can speed technical assistance and pilot work, but the funding level and source constrain how much can be accomplished and shift budgetary trade-offs onto existing IIJA programs.
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What This Bill Actually Does
The bill makes a surgical change to the IIJA’s water program by inserting a transfer authority into section 40910. That authority lets the administering Secretary pull up to $3 million per year from unobligated IIJA balances tied to section 40901 for use under the assistance program already authorized in section 40910(a).
Because the bill points to unobligated balances rather than creating a new appropriation, the money will come only if and as those balances exist.
Operationally, the amendment is aimed at the program-level activities that precede construction: planning, technical assistance, feasibility studies, monitoring, or small pilot projects for recharge, aquifer storage and water source substitution. The Secretary would use the transferred funds to carry out subsection (a)’s purposes — essentially seeding or expanding non-capital support that helps move projects toward implementation.Two practical constraints shape impact.
First, $3 million per year is modest relative to capital costs for recharge or storage projects; expect these funds to pay for staffing, technical support, grant administration, or small pilots rather than major construction. Second, because the source is unobligated balances under section 40901, availability will vary with prior spending patterns and may require coordination across programs to free up funds.Implementation will require administrative steps that the bill does not specify: identifying which unobligated balances qualify, timing transfers within fiscal rules, and deciding how the Secretary allocates the money among applicants.
The amendment does not add new reporting or matching requirements; it relies on existing program authorities and processes in section 40910(a) for eligibility and use.
The Five Things You Need to Know
The bill adds a new subsection (g) to section 40910 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act authorizing transfers to support section 40910(a)’s assistance program.
It directs that up to $3,000,000 be made available to the Secretary for each fiscal year 2026, 2027, 2028, 2029, 2030, and 2031.
The funding source is unobligated balances of amounts made available under section 40901 of the IIJA; the amendment creates no standalone appropriation.
Transferred funds are limited to carrying out subsection (a) of section 40910 — i.e.
technical and financial assistance for groundwater recharge, aquifer storage, and water source substitution projects.
If unobligated balances under section 40901 are insufficient in a given year, the transfer authority produces no additional funds; availability is conditional on existing IIJA spending and carryover.
Section-by-Section Breakdown
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Purpose and scope of the amendment
This single-section bill states its objective plainly: to provide technical and financial assistance for groundwater recharge, aquifer storage, and water source substitution projects by amending an existing IIJA provision. Framed as a discrete insertion, the bill does not rewrite section 40910(a) — it supplements the statute with a funding mechanism intended to support the assistance already authorized there.
Transfer authority from unobligated IIJA balances
The operative text creates subsection (g), which authorizes transfers from the unobligated balances of amounts made available under section 40901. Practically, this means the Secretary can reallocate leftover IIJA funds to the assistance program up to a fixed annual cap. The statutory link to section 40901 ties availability to existing IIJA allocations rather than a new Congressional appropriation.
Annual cap and six-year window
The provision caps the transfer at $3,000,000 per fiscal year and limits the authority to fiscal years 2026 through 2031. That creates a bounded, predictable ceiling for planning but also a hard limit that program managers must factor into multi-year project strategies. The six-year span signals a short- to medium-term pilot or bridge funding approach, not a permanent expansion of the IIJA funding baseline.
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Explore Infrastructure in Codify Search →Who Benefits and Who Bears the Cost
Every bill creates winners and losers. Here's who stands to gain and who bears the cost.
Who Benefits
- State and local water agencies in drought-prone regions — gain access to federal funds specifically targeted at planning, technical assistance, and pilot activities that can make recharge and storage projects shovel-ready.
- Irrigation districts and groundwater managers — receive federal support to evaluate, design, or test aquifer storage and water-source substitution measures that would otherwise lack seed funding.
- Engineering, environmental consulting, and project development firms — see new contract and grant opportunities for feasibility studies, monitoring plans, and pilot implementation funded by the transfers.
- Tribal water authorities — if eligible under section 40910(a), tribes can use modest federal assistance to advance groundwater projects that address tribal water security.
- Federal program managers — gain a small, flexible pot to address technical bottlenecks and provide targeted assistance without seeking a new appropriation.
Who Bears the Cost
- Other IIJA program recipients under section 40901 — unobligated balances from those allocations are the funding source, so money available for other IIJA priorities may be reduced.
- The administering Secretary’s office — must absorb the administrative workload of executing transfers, allocating small grants or assistance, and monitoring use, likely without additional staffing budget provided by this amendment.
- Congress and taxpayers — bear the opportunity cost of reallocating pre-existing IIJA funds instead of creating new appropriations, and oversight demands could increase as funds are repurposed.
- Small organizations and applicants — may face competition for a limited pool of funds intended for non-capital activities, increasing the need for strong grant-writing and project-readiness capability.
Key Issues
The Core Tension
The bill resolves one problem — a need for nimble, program-level funding for groundwater-related technical assistance — by creating a flexible transfer mechanism, but it does so at the cost of scale, predictability, and transparency: a small, conditional pot drawn from other IIJA balances may move projects forward in some cases, yet it risks diverting resources from other priorities and leaves unanswered questions about oversight and long-term impact.
The amendment trades scale for speed and flexibility. On one hand, enabling transfers of unobligated IIJA balances lets program managers respond quickly to technical needs — funding staff, studies, or small pilots without waiting for a new appropriation.
On the other hand, $3 million per year is too small to materially fund major recharge or storage construction; it is likely to be consumed by planning, technical assistance, and administration. That limited scale raises questions about whether the funding will meaningfully accelerate projects or simply subsidize early-stage activities that still need much larger capital investments.
Using unobligated balances as the source introduces administrative and oversight challenges. Availability depends on how quickly and fully other IIJA programs obligate their funding, which makes year-to-year planning uncertain.
The amendment does not add reporting, transparency, or matching provisions; it also does not clarify interagency roles if other agencies hold relevant unobligated balances. Those gaps increase the risk that transfers will be ad hoc, that program managers will compete internally for funds, and that Congress will have less visibility into how IIJA dollars are reallocated.
Finally, the statute refers generically to "the Secretary"; practical implementation will require administrators to interpret authorities and coordinate with state partners under existing statutory frameworks and fiscal rules.
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