FINDINGS.

SEC. 2. [42 U.S.C. 300j-1 note] FINDINGS. Congress finds that— (1) the Safe Drinking Water Act Amendments of 1996 (Public Law 104-182) authorized technical assistance for small and rural communities to assist those communities in complying with regulations promulgated pursuant to the Safe Drinking Water Act (42 U.S.C. 300f et seq.); (2) technical assistance and compliance training— (A) ensures that Federal regulations do not overwhelm the resources of small and rural communities; and (B) provides small and rural communities lacking technical resources with the necessary skills to improve and protect water resources; (3) across the United States, more than 90 percent of the community water systems serve a population of less than 10,000 individuals; (4) small and rural communities have the greatest difficulty providing safe, affordable public drinking water and wastewater services due to limited economies of scale and lack of technical expertise; and (5) in addition to being the main source of compliance assistance, small and rural water technical assistance has been the main source of emergency response assistance in small and rural communities.