Schakowsky Statement on Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act

WASHINGTON, DC – The House passed H.R. 2901, the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act on Monday. Rep. Jan Schakowsky released the following statement in response:

“I am proud to have cosponsored and helped pass H.R. 2901, the Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act. The late, great, Senator from Illinois was one of my mentors when I first arrived in Congress. He stressed to me early on that access to water would be one of the most important issues during my time in Congress, and he wrote the book Tapped Out to spread that message to the world.

Senator Simon has tragically been proven right. One child dies every 20 seconds from lack of access to clean water and sanitation – which results in 1.5 million preventable deaths each year. One in 6 people in the world – 1.1 billion people – lack access to clean water and over 2.5 billion people don't have access to adequate sanitation. The lack of clean water leads to many diseases, including diarrhea, which is the world's leading cause of illness and death. Clean drinking water is a rare commodity in many parts of the developing world.

The good news is that we know how to solve this problem. Clean water technology is neither complicated nor costly, and H.R. 2901 would help address the water crisis by streamlining current State Department and USAID efforts to increase clean water availability worldwide. This bill is a fitting remembrance of one of the Senate’s great champions for global peace and security.

I urge my colleagues and the Senate to pass the bill without delay and send it to the President’s desk for signature.”

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