I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 766
To amend the Public Health Service Act to require the Secretary to award
grants, contracts, or cooperative agreements to eligible entities to estab-
lish, maintain, or improve activities related to the detection and moni-
toring of infectious diseases through wastewater for public health emer-
gency preparedness and response purposes, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY28, 2025
Mr. G
ARCIAof California (for himself and Mr. BACON) introduced the
following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Energy and Commerce
A BILL
To amend the Public Health Service Act to require the
Secretary to award grants, contracts, or cooperative
agreements to eligible entities to establish, maintain, or
improve activities related to the detection and monitoring
of infectious diseases through wastewater for public
health emergency preparedness and response purposes,
and for other purposes.
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 ‘‘Surveilling Effluent 4
Water for Epidemic Response Act’’ or the ‘‘SEWER Act’’. 5
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Feb 24, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\H766.IH H766
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS 2
•HR 766 IH
SEC. 2. NATIONAL WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE SYSTEM. 1
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Subtitle C of title XXVIII of the 2
Public Health Service Act (42 U.S.C. 300hh–31 et seq.) 3
is amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘SEC. 2827. NATIONAL WASTEWATER SURVEILLANCE SYS-5
TEM. 6
‘‘(a) N
ATIONALWASTEWATERSURVEILLANCESYS-7
TEM.—The Secretary, acting through the Director of the 8
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and in coordi-9
nation with Federal departments and agencies and rel-10
evant State and local departments and agencies, shall ex-11
pand, intensify, and coordinate the activities of the Na-12
tional Wastewater Surveillance System to detect and mon-13
itor pathogens in wastewater, such as SARS–CoV–2, in-14
fluenza, mpox, dengue, West Nile virus, and respiratory 15
syncytial virus. 16
‘‘(b) A
UTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.—To 17
carry out this section, there is authorized to be appro-18
priated $150,000,000 for each of fiscal years 2026 19
through 2030, to remain available until expended.’’. 20
(b) R
ULE OF CONSTRUCTION.—Nothing in the 21
amendment made by subsection (a) shall be construed as 22
requiring a wastewater utility or service provider to com-23
ply with a request for wastewater surveillance. 24
Æ
VerDate Sep 11 2014 20:38 Feb 24, 2025 Jkt 059200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\H766.IH H766
ssavage on LAPJG3WLY3PROD with BILLS