FEDERAL FUNDING
Since the SRFs were established, Congress has provided annual federal funding in the form a capitalization grant to provide subsidized loans to build water infrastructure now and grow a permanent pool of revolving funds to meet the never-ending need to repair, rehabilitate and modernize aging infrastructure in the future.
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2025 Appropriations
On Saturday, March 15, President Donald Trump signed the Full-Year Continuing Appropriations and Extensions Act, 2025, (H.R. 1968) to fund the federal government through fiscal year 2025 which ends on September 30, 2025. The bill maintains the same level of topline federal funding for the SRFs as 2024 annual appropriations and, for the first time since 2021, doesn’t use the SRF capitalization grants to pay for congressional earmarks, which means 100% of annual federal funding for the SRFs will be allotted to the SRFs.
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Massive Diversion of Federal Funding from the SRFs
Between 2022 and 2024, Congress diverted $3.73 billion in annual federal funding (45%) from fiscally responsible state-run SRF loan programs for water infrastructure to create a massive new federal grant program for congressional earmarks at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Most states lost federal funding for water infrastructure because congressional earmarks don’t offset cuts to annual federal funding for the SRFs. Since earmarks returned in 2022, 33 states have experienced a net loss in annual federal funding (funding for SRFs plus congressional earmarks). ​
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2024 Appropriations​
​Congress maintained topline annual federal funding for the SRF capitalization grants for fiscal year 2024 but diverted more than half of federal funding - $1.419 billion - from SRFs in 40 states to pay for congressional earmarks 10 states.​
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Closing the Gap Between Authorizations and Appropriations
Despite skyrocketing costs from historic inflation, Congress hasn't increased annual federal funding for the SRFs for the last seven years. Below are estimated allotments to states if Congress funded the SRFs to congressional authorizations of $3.25 billion, each, for fiscal year 2025.
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