U.S. Rep. Cathy McMorris Rodgers (R-WA) on Monday introduced a bipartisan proposal focused on bolstering combined federal and state efforts to keep Americans’ drinking water safe.
“This bipartisan legislation will push federal agencies to respond to current water contamination situations and give them the tools for faster responses in the future,” Rep. McMorris Rodgers said.
The congresswoman on Dec. 9 signed on as the lead original cosponsor of the Safe Drinking Water Assistance Act of 2019, H.R. 5361, with bill sponsor U.S. Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) to improve and coordinate federal interagency actions and provide assistance to states for responding to public health threats posed by emerging contaminants in the nation’s drinking water systems.
If enacted, the bill would direct the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) and the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to create an interagency task force to improve federal efforts to identify and respond to emerging contaminants, according to a bill summary provided by McMorris Rodgers’ office.
The group would include representatives from: the EPA; the National Institutes of Health; the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry; and the U.S. Geological Survey, according to the text of the bill.
The EPA also would have to periodically make regulatory determinations regarding unregulated contaminants and once every five years would need to identify and publish a description of unregulated contaminants that may require regulation, according to the bill’s text.
“Everyone should have the confidence that their drinking water is clean and safe, but as we’ve experienced in eastern Washington in the last few years, more needs to be done to prevent PFAS and other chemicals from contaminating local water supplies,” said Rep. McMorris Rodgers.
H.R. 5361 is the companion bill to S. 1251, legislation introduced in April by U.S. Sens. Rob Portman (R-OH) and Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH).