Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mr. SCHUMER. First, Mr. President, it was good when I walked in--it felt really good when I walked in a few hours ago as we were voting, and I saw Mr. Carper, Senator Carper, the chairman of the EPW Committee, sitting here and Senator Capito, the ranking member, sitting there, working together to make sure that this bill passed and working together to defeat some amendments that might have hurt the whole bill's chance of passing. That is how it used to be around here all the time, and it is good to see it. And I thank both the chair and the ranking member for doing that as well as the whole Senate as well, including Leader McConnell. We are trying to work in a bipartisan way whenever we can, and this bill is a classic example.

First, its importance, of course, is paramount--and I will get to that in a minute--but, second, the fact that we can come together on an important bill that is a part of the Build Back Better plan is something that I think Members on both sides of the aisle can be very happy about, and Americans should be happy about as well.

It doesn't mean that we will be able to do the whole thing bipartisan, but we will do as much as we can--as much as we can.

And this bill is an important one. Clean water is vital to the American people and to their health, and for too long we have tolerated lead in the water of too many. When lead gets into the water of young people, it can certainly cause health problems in later years. All too often, it occurs in poorer communities and communities of color.

This bill, in a bipartisan way, says we are going to come together and get the lead out--get the lead out of our pipes, get the lead out of our faucets, get the lead out of our water. That is an important part of this bill.

And the second part of the bill is, you know, water is very, very important to bringing businesses. Upstate New York, we are trying to attract businesses. One of the first things a business will ask is: Do you have some land available that has water and sewer? When you can say yes, you have a much better chance of attracting businesses to those communities that definitely need new jobs.

And, finally, of course, we all depend on water in our daily lives, and many of the systems are old. They are a century old. Many of our local governments no longer have the dollars to do this on their own. So having a bill that is robust, that helps them, is very, very important.

I would finally note that the bill that we are voting on today is very much--is very similar to the proposal made by some of the Republican leaders when they put together a proposal to President Biden.

So, again, closing on the note I opened with, the happy bipartisanship that marks this bill is a very good thing, and I hope it can continue.

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