U.S. Rep. Matt Cartwright (D-Pa.) introduced legislation intended to promote federal investment in research to ensure the data used in the development of U.S. plumbing standards reflects the 21st century need for more water efficient technologies.

The National Institute of Standards and Technology Plumbing Research Act of 2016 would direct the NIST to reconstitute its plumbing research laboratory, identifying mismatches between old data and newer, water-efficient products that undermine, from an infrastructural standpoint, the conservation aspects such products are intended to provide.