- No clear beneficiaries surfaced yet.
Brownfields Reauthorization Act of 2025
Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 6.
<p><strong>Brownfields Reauthorization Act of 2025</strong></p><p>This bill extends through FY2030 and modifies the Brownfields Program under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA). The Brownfields Program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide grants and technical assistance to states, communities, tribes, and other entities to assess, clean up, and reuse contaminated properties.</p><p>First, the bill expands eligibility for Brownfields Program resources to tax-exempt organizations defined under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, which are organizations that are not organized for profit and do not provide net earnings to private shareholders or individuals (e.g., chambers of commerce).</p><p>Additionally, the bill</p><ul><li>increases to $1 million the maximum grant amount that the EPA may provide for brownfield remediation per site,</li><li>removes the 5% cap that a grant recipient may use for administrative costs,</li><li>reduces the cost-sharing requirement for grant recipients from 20% to 10%,</li><li>requires the EPA to waive cost-sharing requirements for grant recipients located in small communities or disadvantaged areas,</li><li>authorizes the use of grants by a state or Indian tribe for the implementation of a response program,</li><li>modifies the criteria used to rank grant applications by requiring the consideration of whether the applicant has a plan to engage a diverse set of local groups and organizations that represent the views of the local community directly affected by the proposed brownfield project, and</li><li>requires the EPA to report on and update application ranking criteria and the approval process.</li></ul>
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The next hurdle is converting committee movement into a floor coalition.
<p><strong>Brownfields Reauthorization Act of 2025</strong></p><p>This bill extends through FY2030 and modifies the Brownfields Program under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act of 1980 (CERCLA).
The Brownfields Program is administered by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide grants and technical assistance to states, communities, tribes, and other entities to assess, clean up, and reuse contaminated properties.</p><p>First, the bill expands eligibility for Brownfields Program resources to tax-exempt organizations defined under section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Revenue Code, which are organizations that are not organized for profit and do not provide net earnings to private shareholders or individuals (e.g., chambers of commerce).</p><p>Additionally, the bill</p><ul><li>increases to $1 million the maximum grant amount that the EPA may provide for brownfield remediation per site,</li><li>removes the 5% cap that a grant recipient may use for administrative costs,</li><li>reduces the cost-sharing requirement for grant recipients from 20% to 10%,</li><li>requires the EPA to waive cost-sharing requirements for grant recipients located in small communities or disadvantaged areas,</li><li>authorizes the use of grants by a state or Indian tribe for the implementation of a response program,</li><li>modifies the criteria used to rank grant applications by requiring the consideration of whether the applicant has a plan to engage a diverse set of local groups and organizations that represent the views of the local community directly affected by the proposed brownfield project, and</li><li>requires the EPA to report on and update application ranking criteria and the approval process.</li></ul>
This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.
How solid the drafting looks.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
Who stands to gain, and who may push back.
These are examples from the analysis, not a ranked list of the most-affected groups.
- No clear downsides surfaced yet.
Why the argument around this bill splits.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
The path through Congress.
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Reached or meaningfully advanced
Still ahead
Still ahead
Still ahead
This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.
- The next hurdle is converting committee movement into a floor coalition.
Recent votes on the bill.
No vote history yet
The bill has not accumulated any surfaced votes yet.
Go deeper than the headline read.
The main political fault lines are not fully surfaced yet, so coalition durability is still unclear.
This bill has moved beyond introduction, but committee and floor dynamics still determine whether it can build durable support.
Pro readers get the full perspective split, passage barriers, legislative design review, stakeholder impact map, and lens-based policy tradeoff analysis for Brownfields Reauthorization Act of 2025.
Go beyond the headline summary with full stakeholder mapping, legislative design analysis, passage barriers, and lens-by-lens tradeoff breakdowns.