Sen. Bob Graham: “I join with the chairman and the ranking member of the committee in opposing this amendment, as well-intended as it is.…”

“I join with the chairman and the ranking member of the committee in opposing this amendment, as well-intended as it is. I will make three comments about the amendment itself. First, the amendment is not specifically targeted to the circumstance in Nogales, AZ, but rather relates to expenditures along the United States-Mexican border, wherever they may occur. It transfers funds from the EPA to the State Department, and the State Department in turn to the Commission, the International Boundary and Water Commission, which is a successor agency to the International Boundary and Water Commission, in order to implement whatever eligible projects that Commission feels is appropriate. Second, this calls for full funding of these projects; that is, it is 100 percent to be paid from this source of funds. Most of our projects require some level of contribution by the communities or by the State in which the project is located. Third, the funding is to be for treatment works under the definition of the Federal Water Pollution Control Act, and as the Chair of the committee indicated earlier, that is the legislation that is encompassed in the Clean Water Act, not the legislation that is before us today which is the Safe Drinking Water Act.”