[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 1]
[Senate]
[Pages 1105-1106]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                      TSUNAMI: LONG-TERM SOLUTIONS

  Mr. FRIST. Madam President, I will comment on Judge Alberto Gonzales 
and his confirmation. Over the period for morning business, others will 
be coming by and speaking on the confirmation, although we do not 
officially begin until 10:45. Before doing

[[Page 1106]]

that, I want to mention that tomorrow I will have the opportunity to 
testify before the Senate Commerce Committee. I was invited by Chairman 
Stevens to speak on the long-term public health needs of the victims 
following the December 26 tsunami.
  Early in January, Senator Mary Landrieu and I had the opportunity 
fairly early on in the recovery period to go to Sri Lanka where the 
observations were stark in many ways but in many ways inspiring, as we 
flew over the coastline in Sri Lanka and witnessed the unending 
devastation. We also saw on the ground the great outpouring of support, 
caring, and compassion, the best of humanity internationally but very 
specifically by Americans on the ground.
  We all know from the tsunami we have the 5 million people who lost 
their homes and 150,000 people who lost their lives. The scars will be 
there for a long period of time. Senator Stevens will have a hearing 
tomorrow to look at some appropriate initial responses in terms of 
prevention of that sort of catastrophe in the future. Tomorrow, I will 
be talking about a broad picture looking at public health issues such 
as cleaning of water and sanitation, and the role curing disease and 
public health can play as an expression of compassion and caring but 
also as a wonderful currency of peace in its manifestation.
  I will also be introducing legislation shortly addressing this whole 
challenge of water and the global issues surrounding water, the fact 
that 1.2 billion people in the world today do not have a clean glass of 
water. Unfortunately, these waterborne illnesses are the No. 1 killer 
of children in the world today because 1.2 billion people do not have 
access to that water.
  We will be introducing legislation to address the global water 
supply, quality and quantity, that will address some of the basic 
issues, humanitarian in part but public health in large part as well. 
We can do a lot through our foreign assistance, where we have 
misdirected our foreign assistance or we have not even focused on 
water, which I believe it deserves. I will also mention the importance 
of having a global health corps that can respond to disaster in a way 
that we saw so many wonderful volunteers coming from around the world 
to respond to this tsunami. In the aftermath of a terrible tragedy such 
as this, medicine heals not only the body but also the hearts and 
minds. As the tsunami tragedy underscores so powerfully, medicine can 
act as a currency of peace.

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