Assistance, Quality, and Affordability Act of 2010

Floor Speech

Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5320) to amend the Safe Drinking Water Act to increase assistance for States, water systems, and disadvantaged communities; to encourage good financial and environmental management of water systems; to strengthen the Environmental Protection Agency's ability to enforce the requirements of the Act; to reduce lead in drinking water; to strengthen the endocrine disruptor screening program; and for other purposes, as amended.

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Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

When people, Mr. Speaker, turn on their bathroom or kitchen faucets, they often take for granted that an abundant supply of clean water flows freely from their taps. It is only when the water stops flowing due to a catastrophic failure that attention is given to the complexities of providing clean, safe drinking water.

In early May, when a breach of a 7-year-old pipe caused a water supply emergency that affected over 2 million residents of Boston, Massachusetts, and its surrounding areas, including a large portion of my district, our attention was drawn to this issue.

Although the incident in Massachusetts could not have been anticipated because the pipe that broke was so new, each time something like this occurs, public attention immediately turns to the need for increased Federal funding for infrastructure projects that ensure a safe drinking water supply for years to come.

Now, in the Energy and Commerce Committee, working under Chairman Waxman's leadership and partnering with Betty Sutton, with JOE BARTON, with FRED UPTON and all of the very distinguished members of our committee who care so deeply about safe drinking water, we reported out a piece of legislation by a 45-1 vote.

Our bill does reauthorize the Safe Drinking Water Act State Revolving Fund for the first time since its creation in 1996 and will ensure that the public water systems deliver safe, affordable drinking water to the American people while creating jobs, prioritizing financially sound investment in our water structure.

I urge the Members of this House to support this legislation.

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Mr. MARKEY of Massachusetts. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, I just want to say that if Mr. Barton's mother is up right now, she's up too late and she's watching C-SPAN; both of those things are probably not good for her. So we hope Mom is asleep at this time, as are most Members of Congress at this point, with the exception of the ones who are speaking on the floor of the House.

This bill does increase funding from $1.4 billion to $1.8 billion between now and 2015. We ensure that there is more directed, laser-like focusing of where these resources go to get the maximum benefit.

The bill includes my language to strengthen EPA's Endocrine Disrupter Screening Program. Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are the equivalent of computer viruses; over time they can severely disrupt the body's operating system. In fact, since the industrialized era, there has been a constant rise in the incidence of chronic diseases such as cancer, obesity, and diabetes, and the clues to what is causing that could very well be in the water which we drink. And so we really strengthen the program at EPA so that we find out what is in the drinking water, especially for children in our country, as their bodies are being formed.

I would like to insert into the Record a revised cost estimate of the reported legislation done by the Congressional Budget Office, which corrects an earlier estimate that was inaccurate.

Again, I thank Ms. Sutton for her work, especially the work on the ``Buy American'' parts of the legislation. I want to thank all of my colleagues, especially Mr. Barton, for his work, and the bipartisan work of all of the members of the committee who worked so hard on this legislation.

I would also like to thank the staff who have worked diligently on the details of this bill: Drs. Michal Freedhoff and Avenel Joseph of my staff; Jackie Cohen, Tracy Sheppard, Greg Dotson, Peter Ketcham-Colwill, Kristen Amerling and Phil Barnett of the Energy and Commerce Committee staff. And in the minority, Jerri Couri, David Cavicke, Katie Wheelbarger, Michael Beckerman, Amanda Mertens-Campbell and Garrett Golding.

I commend this legislation to all of the Members and I urge an ``aye'' vote.

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