[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 144 (Thursday, October 6, 1994)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: October 6, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
             THE IMPORTANCE OF INVESTING IN AMERICA'S FUTURE

                                 ______


                       HON. THOMAS J. BARLOW III

                              of kentucky

                    in the house of representatives

                       Thursday, October 6, 1994

  Mr. BARLOW. Mr. Speaker, public works are good works. Down through 
the decades the Federal Government has powerfully assisted in the 
creation of the physical ties that bind our Nation together. Private 
investment is, of course, the leading edge. But the back up of public 
investment has been essential to ensuring that all Americans can be 
reaching for the fruits of America's full potential.
  The growth of our Nation in the early days depended on water 
improvements and canals; later came the railroads; and now we have come 
to depend upon the existence of a dependable highway system to deliver 
people and goods to their destinations. Think of the core networks of 
electrical generation and power distribution, water supply for 
residences and business and industry, sewage treatment plants--our 
infrastructure is vital to the Nation's health and wealth, and indeed, 
our very well being.
  Recently I had the honor of celebrating with Western Kentucky the 
50th anniversary of the building of Kentucky Dam. Damming the Tennessee 
River and creating a reservoir over 50 miles long, Kentucky Lake 
brought Kentucky clean water, power for business, electricity for 
households, efficient transportation for industry, and a booming 
recreation resource. When the dam was started we were coming out of the 
Nation's Depression, a period of fear and uncertainty. It was 
Kentucky's families pulling together, and it was a great Senator, Alben 
Barkley, who looked ahead, and said, ``Let's make the investment.'' And 
generations since then have been the beneficiaries. This project 
literally brought us out of unemployment, started our economy moving 
up, became a powerful engine for economic development in our region. 
Kentucky Dam helped make Western Kentucky the prosperous center of 
commerce that it is today.
  Mr. Speaker, our people are demanding that their tax money be spent 
wisely. I concur with our people--we need to cut the fat out of the 
budget. Our people want Federal spending reduced. People want us to 
halt deficit spending. Our people want a balanced budget. Indeed, our 
people want our Federal debt of over $4 trillion reduced because we are 
currently spending over $200 billion a year in interest on the debt--
approximately 18 percent of our Federal budget. Needless to say, this 
interest expenditure is money that many of us want to spend in more 
constructive ways--including tax reduction--than on interest payments.

  At the same time, we want to heed the lesson Kentucky Dam and other 
such wise investments teach us: wise public investment creates future 
public prosperity. Public works are an investment for our Nation, just 
as a new factory, or a new rail spur, or a new tanker is an investment 
for a company or corporation and its future prosperity. We need to 
continue to make wise investments for our people's future prosperity.
  Mr. Speaker, today we must continue our investments in clean water. 
We must have dependable supplies, readily available with accessibility, 
and of course pure and clean. The health of our citizens, our families, 
our business and industry is absolutely, totally dependent on clean 
water.
  Danny and Donna Hearell, of Marion, recently came to Washington from 
Crittenden County in my district to share their insights into the 
problems of water distribution in our part of the country. Mr. and Mrs. 
Hearell, part of a project called Water 2000, participated in a 
roundtable discussion with the Secretary of Agriculture and other 
officials. The conference addressed the needs of Americans who, I am 
deeply troubled to say, 30 years after we put a man on the moon, do not 
have safe, adequate water.
  Currently, more than a half-million rural American households lack 
clean, running water in their homes. Kentucky has more of these homes 
without clean, running water than any other State in our Nation. Poor 
water supplies are a constant threat to the health of children and 
adults, and compound the heart and soul rending difficulties of rural 
poverty. The goal of Water 2000 is to put safe, pure tap water in every 
rural American home by the year 2000. I am determined that we achieve 
this goal in my First District of Kentucky on a county-wide basis.
  The paramount problem for rural areas in need of clean, accessible 
water is funding. Rural areas face funding problems because they have a 
dispersed customer base. Counties simply cannot afford to spend 
hundreds or thousands of dollars constructing the infrastructure 
networks for water supply. And, in the case of population 
concentrations such as our small towns, there is not a financing base 
sufficiently strong for the sewage treatment that must come with water 
supply networks. Kentuckians on meager fixed incomes cannot afford to 
pay as much as $25 dollars a month and higher for water and sewer 
service. if we want all Americans to have access to clean water, then 
we must be of assistance.

  Community grants, as well as wisely structured loans, are a major 
part of the answer. The Farmers Home Administration is playing a vital 
role in rural development. We need to increase that role and provide 
more money to enterprising communities. Our counties and rural 
communities need to be able to tap into the investment resources the 
Federal Government can marshall. They need loan guarantees, low 
interest loans, grants and other seed money. We need to consider 
strategies such as those employed by the Rural Electrification 
Administration and the rural telephone system used 50 years ago to 
bring the basic necessities to rural areas. We need to consider ways to 
fund low-cost, county-wide water systems.
  Mr. Speaker, we must increase the flexibility local managers have for 
funding projects and meeting environmental and other requirements. Red 
tape and paperwork requirements strangle many of these projects before 
they ever get off the ground. Small-town mayors, working part time and 
without pay, are simply unable to sort through the exhaustive grant, 
loan, and environmental applications that unfortunately have become a 
part of Federal assistance today. Environmental requirements need to be 
streamlined and heavily pruned, so that approval is simple and swift, 
and construction is speedy.
  It is the responsibility of Congress to ensure that the Federal 
Government does not impose costly and impractical requirements on small 
systems.
  Mr. and Mrs. Hearell, who run a dairy operation which, of course, 
uses a lot of water, lost their water source when an earthquake struck 
our region 3 years ago. They had to start trucking water, which is 
expensive. When the Crittenden-Livingston Water District came to their 
aid by installing a new water system for them, their water bills 
dropped dramatically. The Hearells testify to the value, indeed the 
necessity of good water.
  When we look at the need for economic development in our counties, it 
is quite understandable that no business will locate where water 
treatment is inadequate, where drinking water is unsafe, or where waste 
treatment is expensive. Effective water and sewer systems are a 
linchpin of economic development. We must not fail to provide such 
systems in our counties and rural communities.
  Today, clean water is as important to a town like Grand Rivers, KY, 
right by Kentucky Dam, as Kentucky Dam was 50 years ago. Just as 
Kentucky Dam was a wise investment of public money, reaping returns for 
our Nation decades into the future, clean water is a wise investment 
today for the benefit of future generations in Kentucky.
  We must come together now to ensure that every American can drink 
clean, clear, safe water. And we must come together now to ensure that 
America continues to believe in itself. We must believe in our future. 
We must invest in that future. Thank you very much.

                          ____________________