Illinois
COMMENTRY

By U.S. Senator Carol Moseley-Braun

The issues involved in attempting to craft a federal budget that will be balanced by the year 2002 dominated last year's Congressional session, and continue to command most of the time of senators, representatives and the president. As a supporter of the balanced budget Constitutional amendment, I agree that the budget must be balanced; the real question is how.

Senator Moseley-Braun.

I think it is critically important that we act in a way that does not undermine investments that are critical to our future. The budget that narrowly passed Congress, and that was vetoed by the president, abandoned too many important public investments, and part of the reason I opposed that budget was that it was nothing short of a raid on rural America.

One area where the budget axe fell most significantly and most unfairly was on the effort to bring safe, clean drinking water to rural communities, and especially communities in Illinois.

The Clinton Administration, with its Water 2000 program, has pledged safe, running water for 1 million rural Americans by the year 2000. Last year, Congress provided $827 million for rural water loans and $500 million for rural water grants. In the budget for 1996, Congress provided $546 million for rural water grants and $364 million for rural water loans, a cut of 30 percent from last year's funding.

Why the cuts in something so basic and needed? According to the 1990 Census, 400,000 American homes have no in-house water. Of this number, 5,331 are in Illinois. A four-month study by the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that for 43 Illinois communities with critical needs, $168.3 million is still needed to serve 64,000 people.

For another 110 Illinois communities that have a worsening, but not yet critical problem, $431.7 million is still needed.

What is more, the program works. There is a 99 percent repayment rate from rural borrowers. It is less bureaucratic than either state revolving funds or block grants. And because the federal money leverages substantial other funds, a few hundred million dollars appropriated by Congress can mean billions in water project construction activity.

Instead, current budget cuts mean there will be less money than ever for safe drinking water and indoor plumbing.

Last year, Illinois received $28 million in loans and $15.2 million in grants. Sixty percent was invested in safe drinking water projects. This year, Illinois will lose about $8.4 million in loans and $4.6 million in grants for rural water infrastructure projects in FY 1996.

With these budget cuts, it will take nine years to address Illinois' most pressing needs, and 33 years to make all of the important improvements identified in the Water 2000 proposal for Illinois.

I am aware of the efforts by Illinois electric cooperatives, working with community-based organizations, to assure rural residents of safe drinking water and wastewater facilities. I strongly support this kind of local initiative, and I applaud the electric cooperative leaders who are lending a hand.

Rural communities alone cannot afford to make these important upgrades to the supply of clean, safe drinking water. The fact that thousands of Illinois residents are currently living without clean drinking water is unacceptable.

Part of Western Illinois sometimes calls itself "Forgottonia," because it never seems to get needed public investments. What I am trying to do is to ensure that no part of Illinois, and rural Illinois in particular, is ever forgotten by the federal government. I intend to keep on working to ensure that every Illinoisan in every rural part of our state has the most basic of public services—clean drinking water, and adequate wastewater facilities.

Remember, we are all in this together. It is as important to a Chicagoan as to a resident of Lincoln that all Illinois citizens have safe drinking water. Similarly, it is equally important to our national community and Illinois that no American suffers disease or worse because of polluted water. The federal budget should reflect our commitment one to the other, to achieve a standard of living of which Americans can be proud.

Carol Moseley-Braun, a native of Chicago, was elected to the U. S. Senate in 1992, having served in the Illinois House of Representatives since 1978.

4 ILLINOIS COUNTRY LIVING FEBRUARY 1996