Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021--Continued

Floor Speech

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. President, this week on the Senate floor, my colleagues and I have explained how the Drinking Water and Wastewater Infrastructure Act of 2021 would make significant improvements to our country's water infrastructure.

After a bipartisan, regular order legislative and amendment process, we move to final consideration.

This legislation makes meaningful progress on our drinking water and wastewater challenges that will benefit the States represented by every single one of us.

It invests heavily in the State revolving loan funds to give our States that flexibility they need in their funding.

It creates a new grant program specifically for small and disadvantaged communities to upgrade their systems, fix leaky pipes, and prevent water loss.

It helps connect low-income households to public water systems or helps them to get new and better septic tanks.

It supports water infrastructure projects on Indian reservation lands and in Alaskan Native villages.

It provides assistance to remove and replace lead pipes, as well as lead testing in schools and childcare centers.

It encourages the next generation to be a part of that water infrastructure workforce that is so critical.

All of the investments represent the EPW's shared goals of improving public health and fostering economic growth in all of our communities.

These are just a few of the provisions which I wanted to highlight and which are informed by particular challenges facing our water systems in the State of West Virginia, but based on the feedback from all of our colleagues in both parties and the groundswell of support we have seen from various water advocacy groups, it is clear that these provisions will have broad applicability to help communities all across the United States. It is why we have such a diverse and growing coalition of more than 70 supporters, from water systems to local governments, to industry, to labor, to environmental organizations.

Before I wrap up, I would like to thank my colleague and chairman of our committee and West Virginia-born Chairman Tom Carper.

This legislation represents, I think, a fantastic first effort for our ongoing work together to address the major concerns of the American people when it comes to infrastructure and the environment, and in a thoughtful and fiscally responsible fashion.

His staff has been engaged and candid with mine throughout this entire process. So, in particular, I would like to thank John Kane, the lead for Chairman Carper's water team, and his colleague Annie D'Amato, as well as Tyler Hoffman-Reardon and Mackie McIntosh, who provided support throughout these negotiations. So thank you. Chairman Carper's team is led by staff director Mary Frances Repko, who brought her wealth of experience to bear on this process as well.

I would certainly like to take time to highlight the members of my team, who worked long hours, nights and weekends, to deliver this legislation--Jess Kramer, EPW Republican water counsel, and Travis Cone, who is here with me today, my Republican deputy staff director and lead for our environmental team. They led the negotiations on our side and brought us to where we are today.

They had strong assistance from our staff director, Adam Tomlinson, as well as chief counsel Elizabeth Horner, as well as Max Hyman, one of our policy staff who contributed to the language we see today in this bill.

I would like to also thank and congratulate Fisheries, Water, and Wildlife Subcommittee Chair Tammy Duckworth and Ranking Member Cynthia Lummis and their staffs for their hard work on this bill. They are two of my colleagues from my House days, and I am so glad that all of us are working together again on the same committee, no less, here in the U.S. Senate

I also appreciate Transportation and Infrastructure Subcommittee Chair Ben Cardin, whom I have worked with on a lot of these issues previously, and also my good friend Ranking Member Kevin Cramer for providing a lot of input into this legislation.

This has absolutely been a team effort. It is what we are here for, to work together. I look forward to our team racking up a lot more wins in infrastructure and beyond over the course of the 117th Congress.

In closing, I just want to reiterate again that passing this bipartisan bill in a bipartisan way is also very important. We know it is more than symbolic, but there is symbolism, I think, here because it shows the American people what we hear all the time when we go home: that their elected officials in Congress can work together and collaboratively on issues such as infrastructure. The bill represents the solid work that comes out of good-faith negotiations.

Chairman Carper and I worked together and never took our eye off of the mutual goal--a bipartisan bill that can pass both Chambers and be signed into law. We are here today with that bill. I am proud to be Chairman Carper's partner, and I appreciate his leadership.

I hope that as we move forward with other infrastructure packages, we remember this moment. We know the next couple of weeks and months are going to be tough, but we can do tough things to deliver for the American people. That is what we were sent here to do.

So, again, I urge my colleagues to vote yes on this legislation, and I hope we continue in this spirit.

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