Why It Matters

The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) filed its third quarter lobbying disclosure on Oct. 5, reporting $100,000 in in-house expenditures.

According to AMWA, its policy priorities include water-infrastructure funding, PFAS regulation, climate and drought resilience, tax-exempt municipal-bond financing, water affordability, and PFAS liability protections.

By the Numbers

The third-quarter 2026 filing lobbying expenditures are down from $120,000 in the second quarter of 2026. In-house spending rose from $100,000 in the third and fourth quarters of 2025 to $110,000 in the first quarter of 2026 and $120,000 in the second quarter of 2026 before returning to $100,000 this quarter.

The in-house team consists of Megan Seymour, Legislative Affairs Director, and Dan Hartnett, Interim Chief Executive Officer. Seymour is a former House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee staffer; Hartnett previously worked in the office of Rep. Robert Simmons (R-CT-2).

Steptoe LLP filed separate disclosures for AMWA in each of the four preceding quarters, reporting $30,000 per quarter on issues related to Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) grant programs. Powers Pyles Sutter & Verville PC also filed quarterly disclosures for AMWA over the same period, each reporting $0. No third quarter 2026 filings from either outside firm appear in the available data.

The Agenda

AMWA's prior in-house filings, covering the third quarter of 2025 through the second quarter of 2026, consistently cited the Low-Income Household Water Assistance Program Establishment Act (H.R. 4733), the Water Systems PFAS Liability Protection Act (H.R. 1267), the Water Information, Security, and Cyber Threat Protection Act (H.R. 2344/S. 1118), the Financing Lead Out of Water Act (H.R. 3892/S. 2007), EPA appropriations, the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF), the Water Infrastructure Finance and Innovation Act (WIFIA) program, and Reducing Lead in Drinking Water grants. The third-quarter 2026 filing contains none of this detail, a departure from the prior four quarters.

In February, a Senate Environment and Public Works Committee hearing on water-sector cybersecurity featured testimony from an AMWA representative, chaired by Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, addressing cybersecurity for small and rural water systems.

The Bottom Line

AMWA's third quarter 2026 disclosure reports $100,000 in in-house spending but leaves the specific issues field blank, making it impossible to confirm what the organization lobbied on this quarter. The broader policy environment for water utilities, including PFAS compliance timelines, infrastructure funding, and cybersecurity, remains active in Congress based on prior filings and member communications.

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