American Water Stewardship Act

What this does

This bill reauthorizes and extends several EPA geographic water programs under the Federal Water Pollution Control Act through fiscal year 2031, including the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, the Long Island Sound program, the Columbia River Basin restoration program, and the National Estuary Program. It reworks the San Francisco Bay program, replacing its grant-only structure with interagency agreements, contracts, and other funding mechanisms, and caps the federal share of a project at 75 percent. It adds Mississippi Sound, Mississippi to the National Estuary Program, but bars EPA from spending fiscal year 2026 estuary funds on it and conditions fiscal year 2027 funds on an appropriations increase of at least $850,000 over fiscal year 2024. It expands the coastal recreation water quality monitoring grant program, reauthorizes it through 2031, and broadens the definition of coastal recreation waters to include river mouths, nearby shallow waters, and waters on beaches. It bars any of these program funds for fiscal years 2026 through 2031 from going to entities domiciled in, or projects conducted with, a foreign country of concern. It directs the Comptroller General to report within two years on the management, progress, and ethics practices of EPA geographic programs.