[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 151 (2005), Part 6]
[House]
[Page 7775]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




 LEMELSON FOUNDATION AND INTRODUCTION OF WATER FOR THE POOR ACT OF 2005

  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, last Friday evening I had the 
opportunity and the honor of attending a ceremony where the Lemelson 
Foundation awarded the annual Lemelson MIT Prize for Innovation, held 
for the first time in Portland, Oregon.
  The foundation was established by one of the most prolific American 
inventors, the late Jerome Lemelson, and his family.
  Although located in Portland, the foundation is truly international 
in scope. Jerome Lemelson endowed the foundation to promote innovation 
and to ensure that its application benefited humankind.
  In the United States, their unique foundation supports several 
grantees whose programs celebrate extraordinary inventors as role 
models, illustrate the value of invention in the evolution of a great 
society, and nurture young adults to solve pressing social problems by 
pursuing careers in invention.
  This year the foundation awarded a $500,000 Lemelson-MIT Prize, the 
largest cash award for innovation, to Elwood ``Woody'' Norris for 
revolutionizing acoustics.
  Internationally, the Lemelson Foundation nurtures individual 
creativity to transform fundamental challenges into opportunities for 
sustainable progress. Its Invention for Sustainable Development program 
recognizes inventors and innovators in developing countries, fostering 
the institutions that support them, and applies their inventions to 
meet basic human needs and advance sustainable development.
  Last week, foundation board member Eric Lemelson discussed foundation 
initiatives dealing with low-tech, high-impact innovation dealing with 
drip irrigation, an example of a cost-effective application of new 
technology to save scarce water resources, save money in a developing 
country while improving agricultural yields.
  This is the type of commonsense approach of applied technology to 
sustainability that can truly transform people's lives.
  I would hope that we in government can undertake the same spirit of 
innovation in our approach to USAID.
  I was pleased to see Senator Frist return from his trip to Africa 
convinced that the United States needs to do more with water innovation 
and has introduced legislation in the Senate. I applaud his bill, the 
Safe Water Currency for Peace Act, S. 492. By the same token, I am 
offering complementary legislation in the House, the Water for the Poor 
Act of 2005.
  This bill will make access to clean water and sanitation a major U.S. 
foreign policy objective and requires the USAID to develop a strategy 
to carry out this objective. It supports innovative financing 
mechanisms that can create additional resources for water and 
sanitation, while ensuring access and affordability to the very poor.
  This legislation is critically needed. The lack of clean water and 
sanitation is perhaps the world's greatest single health need. More 
than 1 billion people worldwide lack access to safe drinking water. 
More than twice as many, 2.3 billion people, one in every three people 
on the planet, lack access to adequate sanitation, and the consequences 
are devastating.
  Water-related diseases are a human tragedy, killing up to 5 million 
people every year. At any given time, half the population in the 
developing world is sick from water-related disease. Tragically, one 
child dies every 15 seconds for lack of water and sanitation.
  At a time when people in every corner of the globe understand the 
importance of water and the problems of its misuse, I was pleased that 
the United States and the Bush administration joined 185 other nations 
committed to cutting in half the percentage of people in the world 
without access to water and sanitation. I was there in Johannesburg in 
2002, watching that consensus come together. I am hopeful that we will 
be able to follow through.
  As Eric Lemelson pointed out in his remarks, the Lemelson Foundation 
does not have to be responsive to shareholders or the voters so they 
can afford to be cutting-edge, innovative, and creative. I would like 
to think that they are pointing the way to more liveable communities 
around the globe where all our families can be safe, healthy, and more 
economically secure; and they are pointing the way for the Federal 
Government to follow their lead.
  My congratulations to the foundation; and I look forward to working 
on their innovations, integrating them with U.S. Government policy 
around the globe.

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