Senate Democrats introduce bill to distribute $300 million annually to shore up water system cybersecurity

Senators Adam Schiff and Amy Klobuchar introduced the Water Cyber Shield Act to allocate $300M per year and expand EPA authority to assess, regulate and fund cybersecurity improvements for water and wastewater systems after recent cyberattacks on roughly 30 U.S. systems—attacks the report links to Iran-connected state actors and ransomware gangs; the bill would require risk assessments, incident reporting, create technical standards with CISA coordination, exempt sensitive utility data from disclosure, and prioritize help and funding for smaller systems.