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CONGRESSMAN LLOYD POE: Thank you, Administrator Shah. I appreciate the chance to be here.
I have great praise and confidence in Mr. Shah. And if any of you know me, I don't say
that much about people who work for the federal government in any department. But, I appreciate
the work that you're doing. The country is in good hands; USAID is in good hands. And
America is in good hands. And the people we help are in good hands, as well.
I do want to thank my friend, Mr. Blumenauer for continuing this pursuit. I'm, kind of
-- I am new to the rodeo, so to speak. And -- but I'm in it. And let me just explain
briefly why. I'm from Texas; I'm a former judge. And I saw criminal cases all my life.
This, to me, this whole concept of water is many things. But, one thing that it is, is
a victims' issue, and here's why. As Mr. Blumenauer has said, in parts of the world women spend
the whole day, the whole day, seeking clean water of sorts. And that doesn't allow them
to do other things that they need to do in their families because they spend so much
time traveling. And when they usually take those kids of theirs, the small kids, girls
in many cases, to some area to just get a little water, they are met with some bad guys.
And they're just waiting there; they're not doing anything. They're just waiting for prey.
And they're controlling the water system, whether it's a well, or a creek, or whatever.
And for that lady to have access to a little fresh water, they do bad things to her. It's
more than just taking what little money she has, but they do bad things to her. And she
gets the water and she goes home. But there's another day; there's the next day. She has
to seek water again and expects, in some cases, bad things to happen so that she can have
water. Now, in the year 2013, that should not occur anywhere in the world.
[applause]
And it gets my blood pressure up, and it ought to get yours up. Now, Americans need to understand
that whatever financial issue there is about getting money and resources to help those
people, it's worth the price, whatever it is. So, I look at this -- one aspect is it's
a victims' issue. And we can prevent that from happening. That's the thing, we have
it within our power to stop that and make sure that that woman and her family have access
to clean water, but also to a clean environment where they can be free from these outlaws
that barter water for criminal conduct.
And so, we should do what we need to do as a nation to go out and solve each of these
problems in certain ways. We must be realistic about the environment; we, you know, I mean
that, we go to a situation and we put in a, you know, high-tech water purification system
and then we leave town, so to speak. Somebody's got to know how to operate it. There's got
to be some electricity, maybe, to operate it. If it -- maybe it doesn't need electricity.
But if it breaks down, of course, someone needs to be able to repair it. So, we have
to use a little common sense that when we help provide resources and water for people,
that water is actually available. And that it is available in a secure manner, and that
it's a safe area, that we're not going to have this problem that I mentioned reoccurring;
and there's different answers for different areas, but the local folks need to have input
on what's best for their community. I think that that's what Mr. Shah is trying to do.
So, this, you know, you look at it any way you want to: human rights, victims' rights,
just many different aspects. And we need to do what we can and raise the awareness here
in Congress, where -- as Congressman Blumenauer mentioned. Some of the obvious things that
you think we could all just get along and pass, it just doesn't happen. And this one
was one that we're going to push as hard as we can. Mr. Blumenauer and I, we don't agree
on anything except this, you know. And...
[laughter]
[applause]
That's really not correct. It's really not correct. That's not true. But, it has to be
-- we agree on a lot more than he realizes. [laughs] And it makes him nervous.
[laughter]
And this is a thing that Congress needs to just do and get it right. And one thing, you
know, we're accountable for the people's money and all of those things. So, one way we're
trying to let the public know their -- the investment is good and it's a good idea but
also that it's -- there's money's not wasted, there's another piece of legislation that
I filed with Representative Connolly. Bipartisan again, it's called the Foreign Aid Accountability
Act. And what that does is basically require that we determine all these different groups
that are helping throughout the world, whether they're actually effective or not. It's so
-- I call it an audit of our foreign aid business. And we want to evaluate everything to see
what we're doing. And if we're doing something well, we want to keep doing it. And if we're
not doing it well and there's not good results, then we want to, you know, use those resources
somewhere else.
So, this is a, like I said, the Foreign Aid Accountability Act, to have some accountability
in all of the things that America is doing in the name of good works throughout the world.
And we hope that we will get this passed as soon as possible. But, the water for the world
is exactly what it means, we want to make sure that water is available. It's going to
be an issue here in the United States; everything east or west of Interstate 35 soon will have
a water issue. Everybody in the West already does. And it -- but it's an issue throughout
the rest of the world.
We -- I'm going to say this, then I'm going to be through. You know, we assume, and our
kids assume, that when we turn on the faucet, we get clean water. We assume that. And it's
shocking to most Americans that a third of the world at least, however many there are,
and there are a lot, however many -- they don't have clean water for sanitation, for
drinking, for any purpose. And if we communicate that message, you know, I think most Americans
have it within their heart to believe we need to help that problem and solve that problem.
Remember, it is within our power to fix it, and we're going to with your help. Thank you
very much.
[applause]
[end of transcript]