PlainBillCongress, translated.Legislation. Context. Public interest.Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in Senate · Apr 7, 2016
Clean Water Affordability Act of 2016
This bill amends the Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) to revise and reauthorize through FY2021 a grant program for intercepting, transporting, controlling, or treating combined sewer overflows or sanitary sewer overflows. The bill: (1) expands the grant program to include support for measures that manage, reduce, treat, or recapture stormwater or subsurface drainage water; (2) allows local or regional authorities to receive grant funds; and (3) increases the federal cost-sharing requirement by requiring the federal share of the costs of a project carried out using grant funds to be at least 75% of the total costs of the project.
The bill also revises the Clean Water Act by establishing requirements concerning managing water pollution during periods of heavy precipitation, including by requiring the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish a green infrastructure portfolio standard, which contains voluntary goals for increasing the percentage of annual water managed by eligible entities that use green infrastructure. (Green infrastructure is an approach used to manage stormwater by capturing stormwater in vegetation or porous surfaces.)
Showing the opening paragraphs of the official summary.
The EPA must update the guidance entitled "Combined Sewer Overflows - Guidance for Financial Capability Assessment and Schedule Development" to ensure that the evaluations of community financial capability and schedule development meet specified criteria.
People & committees
Sen. Brown, Sherrod [D-OH] · D–OH
Legislative record
A procedural vote is different from passage. Passage in one chamber does not establish enactment. Explore the glossary.
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
Introduced in Senate
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We currently store references to these documents.
Source last updated: Sep 8, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
AI Conversation Starters
Choose a perspective, copy a prompt, and paste it into your preferred AI. Each prompt includes the bill version and available official source links, and asks for counterarguments as well as supporting evidence.
Analyze S.2768 as objectively as possible. Explain its main provisions, who would be affected, possible benefits and harms, implementation, exceptions, and uncertainties. Present the strongest arguments for and against it, and identify evidence needed to assess its public impact.
Examine S.2768 through a progressive lens, focusing on fairness, access, economic inequality, and effects on vulnerable communities. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and distinguish stated goals from demonstrated outcomes.
Examine S.2768 through a conservative lens, focusing on fiscal responsibility, institutional stability, federalism, and the scope of government. Explain potential benefits, costs, and unintended consequences. Consider the strongest counterarguments and any provisions that challenge this perspective.
Examine S.2768 through a civil-liberties and limited-government lens. Consider individual rights, privacy, voluntary choice, accountability, and government power. Explain tradeoffs, possible safeguards, and the strongest counterarguments without assuming the proposal is beneficial or harmful.