Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. DURBIN. Mr. President, I come to the floor today in support of the Energy and Water Appropriations bill. I am pleased to see Senators Alexander and Feinstein working to put together a good, bipartisan bill with no ideological or partisan policy riders.

They remind us of the way that we should be doing business here in the Senate. This legislation provides increased funding for infrastructure across the Nation and in my home State of Illinois, and I was proud to support it in the Appropriations Committee.

The bill provides strong funding for the National Labs through the Department of Energy, including critical research programs at Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory and Argonne National Laboratory in Illinois. These labs are supporting thousands of scientists from across the country and around the world as they perform pioneering research and transform technologies for science and industry. Lab facilities in Illinois perform cutting-edge research and are a bright example of American innovation.

The Energy and Water Appropriations bill would invest $6 billion in the Army Corps of Engineers, which will help support important investments in Illinois infrastructure. Waterways in Illinois, including the Mississippi River, are critical to commerce around the country. They provide access for shipped goods, connecting the Great Lakes with the Gulf of Mexico. The Army Corps also plays an important role in flood control projects, something we saw firsthand in Illinois and across the Mississippi valley area after flooding this past winter.

But there is always more work to be done. According to the American Society of Civil Engineers, America scores a D-minus in investment in levees and inland waterways, and a D in investment in dams. This bill is a good start to making the critical investments we need in American infrastructure.

So I am not sure why, after Senator Alexander and Senator Feinstein pulled together such a strong bipartisan bill, Republicans would want to try to add a poison pill rider preventing an EPA rule that keeps our water clean.

Many economists and military leaders tell us that water will be to the 21st century what oil was to the 20th century. Water is going to be that indispensable commodity that makes progress possible; an essential commodity over which wars will be fought. The United States has more clean water today than any other nation on the planet, and it is because of the Great Lakes. Why would we knowingly, deliberately, spoil this precious commodity that is a source of conflict between other nations?

We can't afford to stop making a real difference in our clean water supply, and let me tell you why.

The EPA and Army Corps clean water rule provides stronger water quality standards to protect our Nation's streams, wetlands, and navigable water. These are all resources that we rely heavily on for drinking water and recreation. And one in three Americans, or 117 million people, get drinking water from sources that were vulnerable to pollution before the clean water rule. Now, more than ever, we must work to ensure our water is safe.

We know what can happen when our water supply isn't protected. The Flint, MI, water contamination crisis and high lead levels in the water supply in other communities across the country and in Illinois are reminders of this. But it is not just lead that we have to worry about. Pollutants from factories and sewage treatment plants; waste from confined animal feeding operations; pesticides used on crops; and mining wastewater all flow into tributaries that eventually flow into the Great Lakes, the source of clean water for 35 million people.

Attempts to roll back the clean water rule will not only return us to a patchwork of water protections that make it difficult for businesses, farmers, and others to know whether waterways are covered by the law. It will also risk one of our greatest commodities that supports agriculture, recreation, tourism, and energy production.

To see the impacts of rolling back these protections, we need to look no further than the Gulf of Mexico, which has one of the largest dead zones in the world. Let me tell you what a dead zone is: Dead zones are the result of an overabundance of algae growth, which eventually decompose and steal oxygen from the water, making it hard for anything to live. Nutrient runoff from 12 States along the Mississippi River trickles down into the Gulf of Mexico.

Last year, the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico reached 6,474 square miles, roughly the size of the State of Connecticut. The State of Illinois was one of the largest contributors to this nutrient overload, a combination of runoff from our farm fields and point source pollution such as wastewater plants. We need to reduce this nutrient runoff while protecting our agriculture economy in Illinois. The clean water rule does exactly that by exempting agricultural activities from its provisions.

I urge my colleagues to vote against any ideological poison pill amendment that would prevent clean water appropriations from moving forward to protect our children, our communities, and our economy.

Without ideological riders like the clean water rule amendment, the Energy and Water Appropriations bill is a bipartisan effort that proves we can make smart investments that make the most sense for our country--right now and as we plan for our future. The current lead crisis has shown that we need to get serious about investing in infrastructure programs and support regulations to ensure that every American--especially children--has access to safe, clean drinking water.

Now is the time for Congress to act responsibly to develop a budget that enables our country to thrive.

Thank you.

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