Water Project Navigators Act

Key Points

• This bill creates a new program to hire 'navigators'—specialists who help local towns and Tribal nations apply for government money and manage complex water projects. These experts will handle difficult tasks like grant writing, engineering plans, and environmental reviews.
• The program focuses on 'multi-benefit' projects that do two things at once: improve water supplies for people (like better irrigation or recycling) and help the environment (like protecting fish habitats or cleaning up local watersheds).
• Small towns with fewer than 50,000 people, Tribal communities, and low-income areas in the West, Alaska, Hawaii, and Puerto Rico would get first priority for this help because they often lack the staff to handle complicated federal paperwork.
• Congress would provide $15 million every year from 2027 through 2032 to fund these positions. While local groups usually have to pay for part of the program, the government can waive those costs for communities facing financial hardship.
• The goal is to help local communities become more resilient to droughts and climate change by making it easier for them to start and finish modern water infrastructure projects that might otherwise be too expensive or complicated to manage.

Impact Analysis

Govbase has not yet run an impact analysis on this legislation.