Modernizing America's Water Resource Management and Water Infrastructure
This executive order directs federal agencies to work together more closely on water resources and infrastructure. It creates a cross-agency Water Subcabinet (also called the Water Policy Committee) to coordinate efforts among key departments (Interior, EPA, Agriculture, Commerce, Energy, Army) and others as needed. The order aims to reduce duplication, improve planning and implementation of water projects, strengthen drought resilience and water reliability, protect and improve water quality, modernize water infrastructure, and develop the water-sector workforce. It relies on existing laws and programs (such as WIFIA, GLRI, and NRCS) and emphasizes that actions must stay within current legal authorities and available funding. Agencies are asked to deliver concrete action plans and progress reports within set deadlines. In essence, the order is a large-scale coordination and planning initiative. It does not create new rights or funding by itself, but it sets ambitious timelines for identifying overlapping programs, consolidating interagency efforts, and delivering coordinated actions across storage, quality, infrastructure, data, and workforce development to modernize America’s water systems.
Key Points
- 1Establishment of an Interagency Water Subcabinet (Water Policy Committee) co-chaired by the Secretary of the Interior and the EPA Administrator, with other agency heads serving on the group; Interior or EPA provides administrative support as needed.
- 2Reducing inefficiencies and duplication: Within 90 days, identify all Federal interagency water-related working groups and propose coordination or consolidation as appropriate, to cut overlaps and improve efficiency.
- 3Action-focused planning (Sec. 5): Within 120 days, the Subcabinet must submit a report with recommended actions across four focus areas (storage and drought resilience; water quality and restoration; drinking water and other infrastructure; data, forecasting, and research), including lead agencies and milestones for fiscal years 2021–2025.
- 4Integrated infrastructure planning (Sec. 7): Within 150 days, identify actions to support integrated cross-agency planning and coordinated investments in drinking water, desalination, reuse, wastewater, flood control, and transportation on rivers/inner waterways; consider major programs like EPA’s WIFIA and related federal and agency programs.
- 5Water sector workforce (Sec. 8): Within 150 days, develop recommendations to recruit, train, and retain water professionals across drinking water, desalination, reuse, wastewater, flood control, hydropower, and storage/delivery sectors, with input from Labor, HHS, Education, Veterans Affairs, and others.