Water Security
Floor Speech
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Madam Speaker, I want to pick up on some issues of security. We have heard for the last hour discussions of security, and there are many different aspects to the question of security.
Are we secure in this world in which we live? Well, there are a lot of problems. To be sure, we can worry about China and the South China Sea, and we do. Certainly, in the Middle East, where I recently visited the Gulf States and Iran, there are a lot of concerns there.
As you move into Iraq, there are the issues of ISIL, al Qaeda and, of course, the great tragedy that is occurring in Syria where, basically, cities are simply being destroyed, obviously, the churches, the monasteries, the mosques--boom--housing.
There are well over 270,000 people--Christians, Muslims, and others-- killed in the Syrian civil war and the resultant desire by people to get out of there. Immigration issues are abounding. Certainly, they affect us here in the United States.
There are many other security issues beyond those that make the headlines. There are security issues in our homes. For example, do we have a job? Well, that is a big issue.
Often here on the floor, in days gone by, I would stand with my colleagues and we would talk about creating jobs in the United States. We would talk about strategies of Make It In America, strategies to use our tax dollars to buy American-made products and services so that our money could be used to employ our own people and to support our own businesses.
These are all very, very important strategies. They do happen to do with individual security, community security, and family security. So security has many, many pieces.
Tonight I want to talk about one type of security. This is something that affects every human being, every animal, large or small, from an elephant to the smallest mouse. This security issue is one that affects every form of life. It is called water. It is called water.
This is the most basic of security issues. You don't go but a day or 2, maybe 3, days, if you are not doing much and it is really not very hot, without water. It is essential. This is a bottom-line security issue.
If you don't have water, you are insecure. If you don't have water, you will very soon be dead. If you have poisonous water, you may not die immediately, but it will certainly affect you.
Let's take a look at this. This is water from Flint, Michigan, United States of America. There are roughly 100,000 human beings in Flint, Michigan.
Well, among the most essential of all of the things we need for life, for security, is water. That is Flint, Michigan, water, a city of 100,000 people in the United States.
Oh, we would like to think of ourselves as being the most advanced place in the world. That is Flint, Michigan, water. Nine thousand children under the age of 4 or 5 have been drinking that water contaminated with lead for about 14 months.
I am not going to go into the reasons why that tragedy is occurring. There are many. There is an FBI investigation and there are questions about the Governor of Michigan and the way in which it was done, but I am not going to go there today.
I want to go to something else that we are responsible for here in the House of Representatives and our colleagues across the Capitol in the U.S. Senate. I want to talk about our responsibility here because this is our business.
If we are concerned about security--and we are--we should--and we do--talk about al Qaeda. We should--and we do--talk about ISIS. We should--and we do--talk about refugees and whether they are safe or not. We talk about San Bernardino and the great tragedy there. We should talk about it, and we should do something about it.
There is another side of security that we have specific responsibility to deal with. In 1974, we set out to clean up the waters of the United States with the Clean Water Act. Over the years, it has been amended. In 1996, we set standards for clean water and we provided some funding.
If someone were to grade us on our success in addressing one of the fundamental security issues, that is, the ability to have clean, drinkable water, here is the scorecard. Let's take a look at it. Let's see.
We can run down through aviation, bridges. Oh, by the way, this is from the American Society of Civil Engineers. They produce a scorecard on how well this great Nation, the United States of America, is doing on providing fundamental security.
Aviation, bridges, dams, drinking water: D. Today, at a hearing on water, the Society of Civil Engineers said we have got a D on drinking water.
Somebody asked them: Is that the bottom grade?
They said: Well, pretty much because if you go to an F, it is too much paperwork. So they just stop at D. D.
We fancy ourselves to be the greatest place in the world, the most advanced economy. All the way down this list are D's, a couple of C's. Our infrastructure doesn't rank among the best in the world. In fact, we rank about where developing countries are.
So what is the result of all of this? Well, Flint, Michigan, water, would you drink it? For 100,000 people in Flint, Michigan, that is their water supply. Without water, you don't live.
Closer to my home in Porterville, California, a city of a few tens of thousands of people, no water. So they truck it in. I have got one of those on my ranch. It is called a livestock water trough. That is where the kids get their water in the United States of America.
Oh, we think we are good. Security comes in many forms. Drinking water. So why does this happen? Why is it that, in this great Nation, all of us, 435 here, and another 100 across the Capitol--why is it Flint Michigan, Porterville, California, a half a dozen other cities in California, no water or contaminated water?
Just in December it was reported that, in about a half a dozen communities in the San Joaquin Valley of California, the uranium in the water has reached a level beyond that which is allowed. That is okay. It is only going to be cancer.
Uranium, fine. Flint, Michigan, Porterville, communities throughout this Nation. Oh, Toledo, Ohio. I remember Toledo, Ohio, last year shut down its water system because of contamination from algae in the lake. America. Why? Why?
Here is why. A sharp drop in government infrastructure spending. Oh, government infrastructure spending. Federal Government infrastructure spending. For 435 of us; this is our job.
Oh, let's see. This is 2002. Somewhere--oh, these are real dollars, disinflated, $325 billion. In 2014--that is 12 years later--$210 billion. That is what happens. That is what happens when you don't have water in Porterville. That is what happens when you have uranium and the inability to take it out because you can't afford the systems. That is what happens in Flint, Michigan.
Let's take another look at those numbers, another way to look at it. Spending on clean water and drinking water infrastructure. In 2014 dollars--these are constant dollars across the way--1973, is that Ronald Reagan? I think so. No. Actually, it was a little later.
That wasn't Reagan. It is the end of--what did we spend in 1973 in consistent 2014 dollars? We spent about $10 billion. Okay. In 1990, we spent about $6 billion. Again, these are dollars all consistent for 2016 dollars. In 1999, we are down to about just under $4 billion. In 2005, we get down to about $3.5 billion. In 2016, bingo, $2 billion.
You wonder why we have a D? You wonder why the water systems break. 240,000 water mains broke last year in the United States. You see the pictures of the sinkholes. That is not a geological issue. That is a water main issue. A water main is broken, washed out the street, washed out the community, and the houses fall into it. Not all of them, but that is basically it. 240,000 of those last year.
What are we doing? Are we building new, high-quality water systems for our community? No, we are not. I will tell you what we are doing. Over the next few years, we are going to spend a trillion dollars in the next 20 years on rebuilding--that is a trillion dollars, not a billion--a trillion dollars--on rebuilding our entire nuclear warfare system. Every bomb, new airplanes, new missiles, new intercontinental ballistic missiles, new submarines, a trillion dollars. And this number competes with that trillion dollars.
We make choices around here, folks. We make choices on how we are going to spend your tax money. We are going to spend it on nuclear bombs that go big in a big way, on new stealth bombers, new intercontinental ballistic missiles, new submarines, new dial-a-bomb-- dial it up, it goes big; dial it down, it goes small--so that we can use it as a tactical nuclear weapon. Whoa. We are making choices here.
I can go on for some time about this. I get pretty excited about it. I get pretty dismayed. When I am in Brussels, as I was last week, returning from the Gulf States--Oman, Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Bahrain--looking at what is going on there, this is what I saw: I saw enormous problems. But I also saw a modern infrastructure. Go to Brussels. Look at their airport. Then go to an American airport.
Water. Water. Flint, Michigan, water. State of Michigan, United States of America, that is the water that 100,000 Americans are forced to drink. We have got a Clean Water Act. We have got the laws in place to build our water systems.
So what do we do? Well, I guess we would rather rebuild the B61 nuclear bomb rather than building a water system for Americans for the security of 100,000 people.
I live a long way from Flint, Michigan, but the guy I am going to call on, that is his home. That is where he was raised. Those are the people he represents.
Dan Kildee, you have been on this issue for weeks and months. You have been sounding the alarm. You have been calling us out. You have been calling us out, all 435 of us and the Senate and the administration. You have been calling us out, and you are doing the work of securing the safety of the people in your community. Please join me, Dan Kildee, from Michigan.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Kildee, thank you so very much for the work that you are doing sounding the alarm and driving all of us. I know you did this morning in our Caucus. You alerted us to it. You motivated us. And, in fact, I am talking about it tonight because of your motivation that you gave to me and to our colleagues this morning.
You spoke here a little bit about the human consequences. I would like you to take another run around this on how we bear--the community of America, and more specifically, Michigan--the responsibility of caring for addressing the human problem that now exists.
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Mr. GARAMENDI. If I might interrupt you for a moment, this morning you spoke of a young child that was interviewed. Would you please share that?
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Mr. GARAMENDI. Mr. Kildee, thank you very, very much.
``I am afraid I won't be smart enough.'' I wonder if we should ask ourselves if we are smart enough. Are we smart enough? There are 435 of us facing a myriad of questions around this world and some of them in our own hometowns. Are we smart enough?
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