Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 2016

Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Act of 2016

This bill amends the Internal Revenue Code to: (1) establish a Water Affordability, Transparency, Equity, and Reliability Trust Fund; (2) modify the definition of subpart F income (i.e., income of a controlled foreign corporation earned outside the United States that is not tax-deferred) to include income of a controlled foreign corporation derived from a foreign country; and (3) transfer that income to the fund.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) must allocate funds from the trust fund to specified clean water programs and drinking water programs, including the grant programs authorized or established by this bill.

The bill amends Federal Water Pollution Control Act (commonly known as the Clean Water Act) by authorizing the EPA to make grants for providing technical assistance concerning water and sanitation infrastructure and drinking water systems to rural and small municipalities and tribal governments. The EPA must establish a grant program for repairing, replacing, or upgrading septic tanks and drainage fields.

The bill revises requirements concerning the clean water state revolving fund (SRF) and the drinking water SRF.

The bill revises the Safe Drinking Water Act by requiring the EPA to establish a program to make grants to local educational agencies for: (1) installing, repairing, or replacing the infrastructure necessary for drinking water coolers, drinking water fountains, or bottle filling station; and (2) testing the quality of drinking water at schools in such local education agency.