Water for the World Act passed by the Senate Foreign Relations Committee

Happy Wednesday.

Senator Richard Durbin and Senator Bob Corker both issued press releases yesterday praising the passage of the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 out of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee by unanimous agreement.  

For Sen. Corker's statements, see here.

For Sen. Durbin's statements (not online as of this morning), or for a copy of the Act as passed out of committee, send me an email.

Some excerpts:

“The needs around the world are tremendous, but our foreign aid dollars are limited. We need to make every single penny count by better focusing and coordinating our efforts,” said Corker. “A lack of clean water leads to the deaths of 1.8 million people year – 90 percent of them children, stifles economic growth, keeps women and girls from going to work and school, and has contributed to political unrest in Sudan and elsewhere. Experts tell us every $1 invested in safe drinking water and sanitation produces an $8 return in costs. I’m a fiscal conservative, and I want to see each of our foreign aid dollars go as far as possible, so for many reasons, I believe water is one of the wisest places we can invest.” 

“Access to safe drinking water and adequate sanitation is a right that everyone in the world ought to enjoy but too few are able to realize,” Durbin said. “Water access is no longer simply a global health and development issue; it is a long-term threat that is increasingly becoming a national security issue. I hope the Senate can pass this legislation before this problem reaches a devastating tipping point.”

Building on the progress achieved through the Water for the Poor Act, Senator Durbin introduced the Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2009 in March of 2009. With the goal of reaching 100 million people with first time access to clean drinking water and sanitation, Durbin’s Water for the World Act would do the following:

• Target underdeveloped countries with focused initiatives to improve access to clean water and sanitation;

• Foster global cooperation on research and technology development, including regional partnerships among experts on clean water;

• Provide technical assistance and capacity-building to develop expertise within countries facing water and sanitation challenges;

• Provide seed money for the deployment of clean water and sanitation technologies; and

• Strengthen the human infrastructure at USAID and the State Department to implement clean water and sanitation programs effectively and to ensure that water receives priority attention in our foreign policy efforts.

Water for the World Act - next steps on March 23, 2010

See article below from Circle of Blue. And a quick update: the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing will indeed take place on March 23.  Link here.

Senate Committee to Vote on Clean Drinking Water Bill

March 17, 2010

The bill emphasizes the importance of water and sanitation in U.S. foreign aid.

The Senate Foreign Relations Committee will vote at its next business meeting on a bill to provide safe drinking water to 100 million people, according to a committee staff member.

The meeting is tentatively scheduled for March 23, the staff member told Circle of Blue.

The Paul Simon Water for the World Act was introduced nearly one year ago, but has not been acted on by the Foreign Relations Committee.

“Our bill will reestablish U.S. leadership on water around the world,” said the bill’s sponsor, Senator Richard Durbin, Democrat of Illinois, at a press conference in 2009.

“By bringing safe water and basic sanitation to 100 million of the world’s poorest people, the Paul Simon Water for the World Act will make America safer by reaffirming our standing as a leader in the fight to end global poverty,” Durbin said. “It will help prevent humanitarian catastrophes and dangerous conflicts around the world.”

To help provide clean drinking water, the bill would create an Office of Water within the U.S. Agency for International Development and a diplomatic position in the State Department to increase the importance of water and sanitation for U.S. foreign policy.

Currently, water policy at USAID is managed across several offices and bureaus.

Members of both political parties are among the 30 co-sponsors. Similar legislation — the Water for the Poor Act — was passed in 2005, establishing the United Nations Millennium Development Goal targets for water and sanitation as key elements of U.S. foreign assistance programs. The current bill gives more detailed guidance on how to achieve those goals.

Meanwhile, the House version of the bill is being held up in the Foreign Affairs Committee because it is part of a larger overhaul of foreign aid legislation, according to committee communications director Lynne Weil.

In order to restructure the U.S. water policy bureaucracy, both Senate and House versions of the bill would amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961. The chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Howard Berman, Democrat of California, is working on re-writing that act, which guides how the U.S. conducts its foreign aid programs.

“Any legislation that amends the Foreign Assistance Act is being considered for inclusion in the foreign assistance reform bill,” Weil told Circle of Blue. “That’s why individual pieces haven’t been considered separately.”

Berman’s bill, the Foreign Assistance Reform Act, would require the President to submit a national strategy for reducing global poverty and assisting economic growth in developing countries. The legislation would create an advisory council to complete annual assessments of the effectiveness of foreign aid programs.

Weil said that Berman intends to introduce the bill later this year.