House introduces bills on PFAS, farming, wildfire grid

Reps. Hillary Scholten (D-Mich.) and Bryan Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) introduced the Public Utility Remediation and Enhancement for Water (PURE Water) Act (H.R.4961) in the House.

• Main action: The PURE Water Act (H.R.4961) would provide funding to municipal water treatment facilities to remove perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) from drinking water; related resources cited include an EESI PFAS issue brief.
• Other reintroductions and details: Rep. David Valadao reintroduced the Specialty Crop Domestic Market Promotion Program Act (H.R.5030) to expand marketing and accessibility of automation technology for specialty crop producers (co-sponsors: Josh Harder, Julia Brownley, Jimmy Panetta, Doug LaMalfa); Reps. Zach Nunn and Jasmine Crockett reintroduced the Next Generation of Farmers Act (H.R.5004) to expand farm real estate loan access; Rep. Norma Torres reintroduced the Wildfire Grid Resiliency Act (H.R.4490) which would allocate $10 million to the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to develop technology to mitigate wildfire-related grid damage and provide grants to DOE National Laboratories for grid protection, vegetation monitoring, and first-responder protection. Reference PDF of congressional round-up provided.