[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 41 (Friday, March 9, 2007)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E507]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  PROVIDING FOR CONSIDERATION OF H.R. 700, HEALTHY COMMUNITIES WATER 
                           SUPPLY ACT OF 2007

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                               speech of

                            HON. DAVE WELDON

                               of florida

                    in the house of representatives

                        Thursday, March 8, 2007

  Mr. WELDON of Florida. Mr. Chairman, I rise to express my full 
support for alternative water supply initiatives and my opposition to 
the bill before us. We have an existing program that is able to provide 
affordable loans to communities to fund such projects--the State 
Revolving Loan Fund (SRF).
  The bill before us is fiscally irresponsible. It takes what was a 
pilot program enacted several years ago and which was never funded and 
turns it into a new, permanent $125 million federal grant program with 
a new bureaucracy to implement it.
  We do not need this program. The existing SRF gives taxpayers a much 
bigger bang for their buck. By establishing a new, permanent grant 
program, today's bill will divert dollars from the SRF leaving fewer 
dollars for the SRF to support a broader spectrum of water projects.

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