{"database": "openregs", "table": "congressional_record", "rows": [["CREC-2014-12-16-pt1-PgS6911-3", "2014-12-16", 113, 2, null, null, "SENATOR PAUL SIMON WATER FOR THE WORLD ACT", "SENATE", "SENATE", "ALLOTHER", "S6911", "S6912", "[{\"name\": \"Richard J. Durbin\", \"role\": \"speaking\"}]", null, "160 Cong. Rec. S6911", "Congressional Record, Volume 160 Issue 155 (Tuesday, December 16, 2014)\n\n[Congressional Record Volume 160, Number 155 (Tuesday, December 16, 2014)]\n[Senate]\n[Pages S6911-S6912]\nFrom the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]\n\n               SENATOR PAUL SIMON WATER FOR THE WORLD ACT\n\n  Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, today we celebrate the passage of a bill I\nhave been working on for 6 years--the Senator Paul Simon Water for the\nWorld Act.\n  The bill is aptly named after my predecessor from Illinois in the\nSenate--Paul Simon. Paul Simon was ahead of his time on so many\nissues--including on the importance of clean water and sanitation for\nthe world's poor.\n  He understood if you wanted to avoid conflict between some nations,\nyou had to look at the issue of water. He understood if you wanted to\nkeep a girl in school or reduce infant mortality, you had to provide\nadequate sanitation and clean water. He understood that without clean\nwater and sanitation, efforts\n\n[[Page S6912]]\n\nto improve health and economic opportunities will never be fully\nrealized.\n  In fact, a dollar spent on clean water and sanitation returns between\n$4 and $8 in economic, health, and other benefits. Paul understood all\nthis.\n  In 1998, he wrote the book, Tapped Out. It was prescient in its\nwisdom and policy proposals. Despite my recommendations, the book never\nbecame a bestseller. Though Senator Simon's wife, Patti Simon, has\nbecome a champion on water in her own right.\n  In 2005, the Congress passed the Senator Paul Simon Water for the\nPoor Act, which made providing access to clean water and sanitation for\nthe world's poor a key priority in U.S. development assistance.\n  When we passed this bill, it was the first time our Nation had\nwritten into law our commitment to any of the United Nations Millennium\nDevelopment Goals.\n  Since then, we have succeeded in increasing funding for these\nimportant goals. USAID established an Office of Water and a Senior\nWater Coordinator for Water, and last year, it launched its first-ever\nGlobal Water and Development Strategy to significantly increase clean\nwater and sanitation programs.\n  These efforts and the original legislation have made real differences\nin the lives of the world's poor. I have seen the simple wells\nproviding water for thousands in Haiti.\n  For the first time, water and toilets have been provided to slum\ncommunities in Indonesia, where USAID's program has helped the local\nwater utility reach thousands upon thousands of poor people who never\nhad access to clean water and sanitation.\n  In fact, in 2012, the world achieved the Millennium Development Goal\nof reducing by half the proportion of people in the world without\naccess to clean drinking water and basic sanitation. At that time, it\nwas the only Millennium Development Goal to have been achieved.\n  So for the last several years, we have tried to pass the Simon Water\nfor the World Act--and in 2009 it passed the full Senate, only to stall\nin the House. Again last Congress, it passed out of the Senate Foreign\nRelations Committee.\n  Today's version does not include everything from the original bill--I\nwish it would have included more. But such is the nature of compromise.\n  Today, with passage of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World\nAct, we are going to make more progress.\n  It would not have happened without my partner in this effort, Senator\nCorker, and strong support from Senators Coons, Flake, and Murray here\nin the Senate. I also need to acknowledge the leadership of\nRepresentatives Blumenauer and Poe and the great help of Representative\nRoyce in the House.\n  This bill will lock in many of the leadership, program, and strategic\nchanges that have occurred around USAID water and sanitation programs\nin recent years. It will establish the diplomatic and conflict\nmitigation priorities around water at the Department of State. It will\nrefine and establish key criteria to ensure our scarce foreign\nassistance dollars for water and sanitation are truly reaching the\nworld's most impoverished populations.\n  We have made progress. But there are still almost 1 billion people\naround the world who lack access to clean water, and at least 2.5\nbillion more people lack access to adequate sanitation.\n  Every day in the developing world, 5,000 children die from water-\nborne diseases. Millions of poor children miss school every day because\nthey have to walk for hours to find water for their families, or they\nare sick from drinking dirty water. Girls and women suffer most when\nthis happens because they are the water-carriers of the world.\n  Experts in the Pentagon and elsewhere have called the world water\nshortage a real and growing threat to America's own security.\n  New York Times columnist Tom Friedman published a devastating piece\nabout how drought and water mismanagement contributed to Syria's bloody\ncivil war that makes that clear.\n  We also know that every dollar we invest in clean water and basic\nsanitation yields many times that amount in benefits: people are\nhealthier; kids stay in school; food is safer; AIDS drugs and other\ncritical health treatments are able to work.\n  So I thank my colleagues, my key cosponsors in the Senate and House,\nPatti Simon, and the many organizations for supporting this important\nlegislation. It will help save lives.\n\n                          ____________________"]], "columns": ["granule_id", "date", "congress", "session", "volume", "issue", "title", "chamber", "granule_class", "sub_granule_class", "page_start", "page_end", "speakers", "bills", "citation", "full_text"], "primary_keys": ["granule_id"], "primary_key_values": ["CREC-2014-12-16-pt1-PgS6911-3"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 36.91103192977607, "source": "Federal Register API & Regulations.gov API", "source_url": "https://www.federalregister.gov/developers/api/v1", "license": "Public Domain (U.S. Government data)", "license_url": "https://www.regulations.gov/faq"}