I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1261
To amend title 54, United States Code, to authorize the Secretary of the
Interior to make financial assistance to States under the Land and
Water Conservation Fund available for water quality projects, and for
other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY12, 2025
Mr. M
ASTintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee
on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend title 54, United States Code, to authorize the
Secretary of the Interior to make financial assistance
to States under the Land and Water Conservation Fund
available for water quality projects, and for other pur-
poses.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Land and Water Con-4
servation Fund Water Amendments Act of 2025’’. 5
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SEC. 2. FINANCIAL ASSISTANCE TO STATES FOR WATER 1
QUALITY PROJECTS. 2
Section 200305 of title 54, United States Code, is 3
amended— 4
(1) in subsection (a), in the second sentence, by 5
inserting ‘‘and water quality improvement’’ after 6
‘‘outdoor recreation’’; 7
(2) in subsection (d), by adding at the end the 8
following: 9
‘‘(5) W
ATER QUALITY.—A comprehensive state-10
wide outdoor recreation plan shall identify— 11
‘‘(A) any body of water within the bound-12
aries of the State for which a State water qual-13
ity control plan has been developed pursuant to 14
section 303(d) of the Federal Water Pollution 15
Control Act (33 U.S.C. 1313(d)); and 16
‘‘(B) any proposed water quality project 17
(as defined in subsection (e)(4)(A)) to be con-18
ducted with respect to a body of water that is 19
identified under subparagraph (A).’’; and 20
(3) in subsection (e)— 21
(A) in the heading, by striking ‘‘
ANDDE-22
VELOPMENT OF BASICOUTDOORRECREATION 23
F
ACILITIES’’ and inserting ‘‘, DEVELOPMENT 24
OFBASICOUTDOORRECREATIONFACILITIES, 25
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•HR 1261 IH
AND CONDUCT OF WATER QUALITY 1
P
ROJECTS’’; 2
(B) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘and 3
(3)’’ and inserting ‘‘, (3), and (4)’’; and 4
(C) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(4) W
ATER QUALITY PROJECTS .— 6
‘‘(A) D
EFINITION OF WATER QUALITY 7
PROJECT.—In this paragraph, the term ‘water 8
quality project’ means any project identified in 9
a State water quality control plan developed for 10
the purpose of restoring any body of water that 11
is identified by the State under section 303(d) 12
of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (33 13
U.S.C. 1313(d)) as being impaired. 14
‘‘(B) F
INANCIAL ASSISTANCE .—Under 15
paragraph (1), the Secretary may provide finan-16
cial assistance for the conduct of water quality 17
projects. 18
‘‘(C) N
ON-FEDERAL SHARE CREDIT .—The 19
Secretary may credit toward the non-Federal 20
share required under subsection (c) funds allo-21
cated by a State for the conduct of a water 22
quality project. 23
‘‘(D) C
ONSULTATION.—The Secretary 24
shall consult with the Administrator of the En-25
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vironmental Protection Agency in carrying out 1
this paragraph. 2
‘‘(E) L
IMITATIONS.— 3
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—In providing fi-4
nancial assistance to water quality projects 5
under this paragraph, the Secretary shall 6
only provide financial assistance to water 7
quality projects that seek to improve water 8
quality by improving, restoring, remedi-9
ating, or developing natural hydrological 10
systems, such as— 11
‘‘(I) wetlands; 12
‘‘(II) marshes; 13
‘‘(III) living shorelines; 14
‘‘(IV) near-shore estuarine 15
waters; or 16
‘‘(V) any other naturally occur-17
ring hydrological features the Sec-18
retary determines to be necessary for 19
the purpose of reducing nutrient 20
loads. 21
‘‘(ii) N
O REIMBURSEMENT .—Funds 22
made available for a water quality project 23
under this paragraph may not be used to 24
reimburse the cost of any water quality 25
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project that has already been completed or 1
is otherwise fully funded. 2
‘‘(iii) E
FFECT.—Nothing in this para-3
graph— 4
‘‘(I) expands the authority of the 5
Federal Government over nonnav-6
igable waters; or 7
‘‘(II) authorizes the Secretary to 8
regulate the conduct of water quality 9
projects.’’. 10
Æ
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