§9058b Funding for Water Assistance Program

Summary

Provides $500,000,000 to the Secretary of Health and Human Services for fiscal year 2021, from Treasury funds, and the money stays available until spent. The funds go as grants to States and Indian Tribes to help low-income households—especially those with the lowest incomes—who pay a large share of their income for drinking water and wastewater. Grants pay public water system owners or operators to reduce overdue bills and lower rates for those households. The Secretary must split the money based on each area’s share of households at or below 150 percent of the Federal poverty line and each area’s share of households that spend more than 30 percent of monthly income on housing, and may reserve up to 3 percent for Indian Tribes and tribal organizations. "State" means the 50 States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, Guam, the United States Virgin Islands, and the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands.