On Monday, U.S. Representatives Jim Costa (CA-21) and Chuck Edwards (NC-11) introduced the Emergency Rural Water Response Act, bipartisan legislation to cut the red tape and deploy emergency federal water funding to rural communities. … From the return of Tulare Lake to wells running dry in East Fresno County, the Valley has been hit hard by water crises in recent years. Since the program’s [USDA’s Emergency Community Water Assistance Grants] creation in 1972, only rural communities with fewer than 10,000 residents have been eligible for aid. While populations in many rural towns have grown over the past five decades, the eligibility cap has not kept pace, leaving thousands of residents in small but growing communities without access to this lifeline.