On the recordSeptember 20, 2010
today, with the passage of the Paul Simon Water for the World Act, the Senate will take an important step in fighting poverty and saving the lives of the world's poor by increasing access to the most fundamental human need--clean water. I introduced this bill in honor of my friend and mentor, the man whose seat I now occupy in the Senate, the late Senator Paul Simon. Solving the global water crisis was his last great campaign and the topic of a book he authored called ``Tapped Out: The Coming World Crisis in Water and What We Can Do About It.'' If he were here today, he would be proud of the Senate's action. While we have made progress in recent years on clean water and sanitation, tragically nearly 1 billion people around the world still lack access to clean, safe water. More than 2 billion people lack access to basic sanitation. Most of these people live on less than $2 a day.
