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Agriculture, Rural Development, Food And Drug Administration, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010

Floor Speech

Date: July 8, 2009
Location: Washington, DC
Issues: Agriculture and Food Drugs Natural Resources

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Mrs. CAPITO. Mr. Chairman, as we know, funding for rural water projects is vital to the quality of life in our local communities. Small communities have the greatest difficulty providing safe, affordable public drinking water due to their limited resources, and this amendment is designed to help address this challenge.

Helping small communities better manage their water resources is absolutely critical to rural America. Across this country, over 90 percent of the community water systems serve a population of less than 10,000 people, and are eligible to receive support from the USDA Water and Waste Disposal programs.

USDA water loans and grants allow communities to build or extend water systems and repay the loans at reasonable rates and terms. These important programs provide small communities that possess limited technical and financial resources the tools they need to protect their drinking water quality.

Small and rural communities rely on technical assistance and training from their State rural water associations to overcome their lack of economies of scale, provide critical onsite technical expertise, and comply with Federal rules and regulations. Without this assistance, many could not construct new systems, expand existing ones, or comply with mandates.

My amendment would restore funding of the Rural Water and Wastewater Disposal program to the fiscal year 2009 level, and ensure that communities have access to the technical resources they need to supply safe and affordable water.

At the President's request, the committee reduced funding to the Rural Water and Wastewater Disposal program by $10.038 million. But just yesterday, the Senate Appropriations Committee recommended the Rural Water and Waste Disposal program receive $22.5 million above the President's request.

We must continue to protect important rural water systems which are critical to the economic viability of any small community by maintaining funding for the Rural Water and Wastewater Disposal program. I encourage my colleagues to support this amendment.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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