Water Resources Technical Assistance Review Act

This provision requires the Comptroller General of the United States (GAO) to initiate a comprehensive review of all technical assistance programs, initiatives, and authorities related to clean water infrastructure administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). This review must begin within one year of the bill's enactment and aims to provide a detailed understanding of the current landscape of EPA's clean water technical assistance.

This section outlines the specific elements that the GAO's comprehensive review must include. These requirements range from describing existing technical assistance programs, their beneficiaries, and activities over the past five years, to a detailed examination of EPA's Water Technical Assistance (WaterTA) initiative. It also mandates an analysis of potential duplication, an evaluation of capacity building, an assessment of unmet needs in economically distressed communities, and a review of inter-agency coordination and the promotion of cost-effective technologies.

Upon completing its review, the GAO is required to submit a report detailing its findings and recommendations to specific committees in both the House and Senate. Following this, the EPA Administrator must, within 90 days and then annually for five years, submit a plan outlining the actions taken to comply with the GAO's recommendations. This ensures that the GAO's findings lead to concrete changes and that EPA is held accountable for implementing improvements.