[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 17]
[House]
[Pages 23782-23783]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            CHILDREN AT RISK

  (Mr. BLUMENAUER asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)

[[Page 23783]]


  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, every day on the floor, we have much 
spirited debate. Often there is some agreement. But I think there is 
one thing that every Member of this Chamber can agree, the needless 
loss to water-borne disease of a child every 15 seconds. Four children 
will die before I finish my 1-minute here this morning. This sum is a 
tragedy that we must and should act to avert.
  The good news is it is something we can change. We can make water and 
sanitation a cornerstone of United States foreign aid policy. We have 
legislation moving through our House International Relations Committee, 
passed unanimously, that would make this important change. There is 
legislation on the other body, encouragingly introduced by both the 
majority leader and the minority leader, that is parallel in nature.
  Yesterday, Chairman Hyde and I invited each Member of the House to 
join over 60 other bipartisan cosponsors to add their names to H.R. 
1973, the Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act. This critical bipartisan 
legislation will enable the United States to fulfill our international 
obligation and prevent this tragic, unnecessary loss of life around the 
world.

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