Senator the hearing is called to order. We are here to discuss this innovative financing and funding to address americas deficient Water Infrastructure. The purpose of this hearing is imple. Senator boozman many members of this committee, including myself reference the American Society card. Il engineers, report currently it grades americas Drinking Water infrastructure with a d. Waste water has a slightly better grade, a dplus. Some of us grades in school. [laughter] senator boozman this is not a rural problem or a big city problem or a democrat or republican problem but this is a national emergency. It is one thing to see these terrible grades on paper, but what does this mean for people in their daytoday lives. If we imagine life without clean and efficient Drinking Water, we picture communities that are not our own. We picture countries. Currently an estimated 1. 7 million americans live without access to clean running Drinking Water in their homes. There are tremendous infrastructure needs in rural america. The estimated cost to provide rural Drinking Water facilities totals 60 billion. With american, indian and alaska an natives. We are trying to address this problem and we have made this a top priority. Coupled with the bipartisan support in both the senate and the house, we have an Incredible Opportunity to work across the aisle and get back on track to making americas Water Infrastructure the best in the world. While we all agree that Infrastructure Investment is a necessity, this hearing will look at commonsense approaches with new ideas to fund these important projects so we can give the American People the basic service they desperately need and deserve. Our strategy at the moment is the publicprivate partnership. P. 3s are a scrurebl proponents and necessary to get the investment in infrastructure that the plan promises. While p3s are a great way, its not a magic cure for all. P3s are a great tool but it is important to realize, they dont always work in small rural states. That being said a combination of innovative financing, private investment along with state and [captioning made possible by the national captioning institute, inc. , in cooperation with the United States house of representatives. Ing such as loans and grants is a good way to address the problem. The problem will not be solved with a one size fits all. We will have to use every funding and Financing Mechanism at our disposal while giving communities the tools to fix the problem. For a moment, this picture of Small Community in rural arkansas is what we are trying to update an aging. This community has a small tax base, meaning any Infrastructure Improvements needed would make the cost of these utilities unaffordable. The Community Like the one i have described has few options to fund such a project. They could look towards the Water Infrastructure act which provides low interest treasury rates to finance water projects but this project is not likely large enough to receive any assistance. Not a problem that communities using to fund largescale projects will fund smaller communities. The Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Drinking Water state fund provide funding assistance to expand waste Water Treatment systems consistent with the clean water act and safe drinking act. And this could fund the project since 1913, bond interest earnings have been exempt. Leading investors to offer low borrowing rates in 2016 alone. Communities issued 38 billion in Municipal Bonds to pay for Water Infrastructure projects translating into millions of dollars for local water ratepayers. The Small Community im describing could look to the federal government. There are grants available for communities to help them help themselves. We have many tools at our disposal. The trick is finding what works for each community rather than a one size fits all. What happens in rogers, arkansas might not help in chicago, illinois. The time to act is now. We have an Incredible Opportunity to develop an infrastructure bill that directly addresses americas Drinking Water and americas waste Water Infrastructure challenges. I thank our witnesses for attending todays hearing and i look forward to hearing examples of the problems average americans are facing and what kind of solutions we can agree upon. And i go to our Ranking Member. I have a terrible cold. Senator i sound like a boy going through pew bert. Im hoping to sound like Kathleen Turner but today is not so sexy. And i thank all of our witnesses for participating in this important conversation. Last week, Ranking Member carper and i organized a round table discussion to highlight some of our most pressing Drinking Water. We discussed 0 contaminant that e. P. A. Monitors like lead, mercury and arsenic and discussed young children, pregnant mothers and the elderly, whose exposure can alter the trajectory of their lives. And 56 Million People connecting to Treatment Plants by 2032. We are now six months into the Trump Administration and havent seen any details about the president s infrastructure plan. Despite a lot of campaignstyle rhetoric about the need to go into our infrastructure, this is a net loss of roughly 144 billion. The president has maintained funding for the state Revolving Fund but eliminates the rural programs and slashes e. P. A. Budget by 31 . Just last night, the white house announced president ial Advisory Council on infrastructure. How is the department of commerce to make recommendations to the president regarding funding, support and delivery of Infrastructure Projects . A report is due some time before december 31 of 2018. The confusion and delay is the president s goal, mission accomplished. Our goal is to enhance safety and create Public Health and protect jobs. I would like to advance those goals and put people back to work sooner rather than later. Our communities face daunting challenges to guarantee that what most of us take for granted, clean, safe, healthy water. We are here to understand the funding and financing challenges and work on bipartisan solutions. Whether it be taxexempt mune pal bonds or state Revolving Fund, im a Firm Believer of having the right tools to accomplish the job. And identify the gaps when tools need to be modified. Each provides communities with opportunities to address Water Infrastructure needs and each needs to be thoughtfully considered in their context. I thank the witnesses for their participation in this conversation. I look forward to your testimony. And i thank you, mr. Chairman. Senator boozman thank you, smor duck worthy. Duckworth. Mr. Frazier moved in 1990 to be closer to his family and was in a situation where he didnt have running water. In 2014, his mother contacted my office and we discussed the problem that the family was facing. After talking to mrs. Frazier, i got her in touch with the Water Systems council who were able to drill wells and bring Drinking Water to the home as well as the homes to their neighbors. This subcommittee hearing was to take place on june 20, but due to a scheduling conflict, we had to cancel. Unfortunately for mr. And mrs. Razier, they were on a plane flying to d. C. I got the opportunity to speak with him in my office about what his family and community went through and how the lives changed. Most people who had just got quenry liable and affordable Drinking Water would forget about the problem. To this day, he is getting the word out who is hauling water in their community. He told me whenever he sees them hauling water he tells them about the options available for assistance. I would like to thank you and your family for everything you have done for the area. I would like to thank your wife who is nice enough to travel up to d. C. Again to testify. And given your personal experience, these are the kind of stories that we need to get out. There is no substitute for it. Thank you very much for being here. I want to thank the chair and Ranking Member for holding this urgently needed hearing. Most people dont understand the problem. Discussed that there is more lead in the water. We are in crisis in this country greatest ng the natural treasure. And im very blessed to have a guy here who is one of our state who is doing work in a difficult environment in a city that has had a lot of challenges with Drinking Water. And for andy, i want to thank you for coming here. Andy, for the record is currently the executive director and chief engineer of the Camden County municipal authority. Before becoming the chief gineer in 2011, he was the deputy executive director from 1996 to 2011. Appedy has been an incredible Public Servant and made a reputation for himself even up to the northern counties. He is renowned in his field to rebuild and implementing cuttingedge changes including focusing on Green Infrastructure solutions. You see solutions in order to help address the other issues including camdens combined sewer overflow challenges. Andy and his team were able to make these improvements and i think this is some good news to all of us while holding user rates steady for 17 years. He serves on the board of the National Association of clean water agencies. As the chair of the clean water industry of the future committee and Community Service committee. He serves on the new Jersey Environmental justice Advisory Council. Im grateful that he is here right now to contribute to this committee and i always say washington would be a better lace if jersey came down here. I welcome josh ellis Vice President of the Planning Council in chicago. Had a 3 4, it has has prosperous region by implementing solutions. For more than a decade josh has been at the forefront through initiatives like green rivers chicago. Josh is the leading voice about storm Water Management and water supply management as well as advancing investment policy. I appreciate his willingness to join us today and i look forward to his testimony. Thank you. Senator boozman you are welcome to go ahead and present your testimony. Thank you, senator boozman. Thank you Ranking Member duckworth and members of the subcommittee i would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity to share my story. For most of my life my family lived without access to safe, reliable Drinking Water. Through telling my story and struggles to secure safe reliable Drinking Water that congress will put in place policies that will bring water to millions of americans that live in our nations rural areas. May be theaurl areas single most important form of assistance our government can provide. I lived in rural northwest arkansas, an area of great Natural Beauty but Drinking Water can be extremely difficult. Life without Drinking Water can be strenuous and stressful. You are worried about how much water you have and how much will be consumed in a simple daytoday activities. People drive every day thousands to iles a year to get water their homes and if the water station is broke or theres bad weather conditions, you may have to go several days out water. Hauling water consumes many hours a week and has resulted in a number of deadly accidents. My dad, who is a disabled vet spent much of his life hauling water. My water was stressed out about how much water we had. Many people in our area, veterans, the disabled, Single Parents are down on their luck just trying to do right and survive. These folks cant go to a bank and ask for a loan to pay for a well. We cant tap into rural city systems. Many of my neighbors struggle to get water. We have single moms taking their children to haul water in buckets. One worries about the quality of the water being hauled. The water station uses a sign that states we cant ensure the quality of water. How awful is that . In 2014, our prayers for reliable sources were answered. My mother contacted senator oozman who listened to our story and took action to get Drinking Water. Snoor boozman arranged meetings that result in drilling of wells that brought fresh reliable Drinking Water into my mothers home and my home. Wells and well systems are a godsend to communities like mine. We were never going to have resources to pay for Drinking Water or Treatment Facilities or run water lines many miles. Wells provide to be a Cost Effective alternative for me and my neighbors. The Water Systems council has provided my parents, myself and families across arkansas quality Drinking Water at a reasonable price through wells. And last year, senator boozman worked with senator cardin, thank you, senator cardin, to have the act enacted into law, legislation requiring the e. P. A. To set up clearinghouse is with information on the use of wells, well systems to meet rural Drinking Water challenges. The Water Systems council has proven that they can provide Drinking Water by over 75 . Estimates. P. A. Survey the shortfall of Drinking Water funding for small communities at 64. 5 billion. We have seen in arkansas, they reduce the cost of providing Drinking Water in small communities and congress should do everything it can to promote the use of wells in these rural areas. I know firsthand the importance of safe well water and wells are a part of that solution. Thanks again to senator boozman, senator cardin, for your work to bring the promise of wells and well systems to communities across rural america. I would like to show you a brief video documenting the role that played in ng water he lives of our community. Video] we are blessed to have water. Lake, streams. It is unfortunate with that water that people dont have access. The contacted to build wells. We have been without water for 17 years. I have been hauling water. You have to take shoulder baths and make sure that the dish washer is completely full before you run the dish washer. I have a 460gallon tank. We take it 6. 2 miles from here and once its full, it is 3,200 foot and i drive it to my water tank here in the ground and i do that three times a week. This is 12 to 14 inches. This road doesnt get serviced by the county. During the winter time i have had close. People have crashed and killed themselves. You have to watch what you are doing. Hauling water is dangerous. You can lose control of the vehicle and weather conditions such as rain, snow or ice are present. Im so grateful that its not going to happen anymore. I take the lid off. And insert the hose. Hauling water is expensive. According to one survey, over the 17 years he has been hauling water, 26,000 and gone through three pickup trucks and spent ver 8,000 on these trips. 30,000 spent just getting water. It goes out of the lines and into a funnel and it becomes my water. So i turn around and i have time on my hands and i sit back and. It we have been hauling water for 16 years. They said we would have residential water here in three years, but it never happened. The expense to return public Water Supplies is prohibited for the water districts and the residents who have to absorb the cost. Estimated it will cost 1 million. This tank is filled once a day and sometimes it isnt enough. I lived in my home without water for eight years. My husband has to haul water in a truck. He drives five miles each day. My husband will no longer have to fill it, drive five miles and dont wash away the clothes. 150 families that haul their own water. This would be crazy and benefit rom it, too. I serve on the board of directors of the National Association which is a nonprofit which interests the clean agencies nationwide. I sincerely thank the subcommittee for holding this hearing for Water Infrastructure as all of the senators said in their remarks, this is an important issue for our country. And we offer a waste Water Treatment plant that services over 300,000 people we are deeply committed to our responsibility to protect the Public Health and the environment as well as being responsible stewards. Funding infrastructure is one of the greatest challenges. They have the same mission. One, to protect the Public Health, safe Drinking Water and sewage overflows. People shouldnt have to walk through these and shouldnt have lead in their Drinking Water. Water infrastructure, there is no opportunity for growth and Infrastructure Construction and maintainance results in jobs. This is a challenge but also opportunities. In order to do this, in order to meet our mission, we have to rei have invest in the aging infrastructure. Our infrastructure is old. Many in camden city are as old as the 19th century and the average life is seven years. We need to comply with rules and regulations and support the high quality utility. Not only to meet our mission but to be an anchor institution and thats an opportunity for clean Water Utilities that ma utilities are stepping up to do. The need for greater investment in our nations infrastructure has been stressed today. It is very well known and i agree with senators boozman and duckworth of the dplus grade. It is a serious challenge and there is a gap right now. In addition, we in new jersey can talk about climate history. Billions of gallons of raw assuming went into the waterways of new jersey, so there is an infrastructure gap. However as time goes on, it is only getting worse and the climate will worsen. There is a significant gap today and that gap widens. There is a lot we have to do. There are solutions and ill propose five solutions. The first is, we have to increase efficiency for our own utilities. We have to be efficient as possible and harness the private sector and harness that to the public good. Thats one good. The state Revolving Fund, in new jersey, we have a very Robust Program to help us with financing. Third, additional funding is possible above and beyond the appropriation. Fourth, additional flexibility for innovation and Affordability Program for lowincome customers. Those are the five things. Increase efficiency in ourselves, additional funding, additional flexibility and Affordability Program. In our own agency, we have been working hard. We implemented the Environmental System to improve our efficiency. We also use the state Revolving Fund to build our waste Water Treatment plant to make sure there wasnt an adverse impact. We did all this. And improve efficiency and state Revolving Fund to hold our user fees for 17 fees. Higher in 21 years. If given the tools, the funding from the state Revolving Fund, we can do the job and do it in a way without affecting the rates of our customers and making a positive difference for our communities. This could have never happened without the use of new jerseys state Revolving Fund. E couldnt have done it. And internal efficiency and able to execute, improve our performance and hold our rates. So throughout my role as a board member, i know our situation is not unique. Relies heavily on the state Revolving Fund. It is essential. We know the era of grants has passed. The low interest Revolving Fund. We are able to get Interest Rates of less than 1 . If we are making improvements to our waste Water Treatment plants. New equipment and lower electricity through new technology. And our annual debt service is not so great because of the low Interest Rates. So by borrowing the money, we rate. Ving a lower and we are able to improve it and protect the Public Health and hold our rates steady. With the help of the federal government, the state Revolving Fund has been helping us with our mission. In addition, we are hoping that there will be other opportunities for funding. As you mentioned already today, the infrastructure crisis is really a crisis and more financing and funding is needed. He state Revolving Fund is a terrific way that the utilities can utilize to improve their performance and reduce their costs. We are support i have of other things. Tax exempt Municipal Bonds. Through public, private partnership. We utilize to build a solar panel to reduce our costs by 360,000 and lower our carbon profit and we are able to do that atlanta no cost to towns. It was paid for by the private investor and so its a win for the ratepayer. And more resiliencey because we have the solar panels. And also it reduces our costs. And finance inwin capabilities with private sector and within our own sector of the agency is working on a peertopeer initiative where they can assist utilities and work together. So we want to not only have efficiency in our own utilities but within our sector and everage our own resources. Appropriations committee, hell be right back. Well see people rotating and appreciate your testimony very much. Mr. Ellis. Thanks for having me today, im Vice President of the metropolitan Planning Council which has been working in the greater chicago region. Ven other counties and 280 municipalities. We have about 8,000 in the state. We are not real proud to lead the nation but we have a lot. Within those municipalities, we have 400 independent Water Utilities. And so you can imagine the issues that andy and pike are describing, playing out in 400 different communities, some are very different economic incomes and thats the heart of several of the issues i want to talk about today. As the senator pointed out, we have lots of tools in the tool box for Water Infrastructure financing. A lot of them work very well and like any tool, if you use the wrong tool at the wrong time and put a screw in it doesnt work very well. And we need to figure effective financing, to make sure the communities are getting the tools. We did a survey several years ago of Water Utilities and their experience using this. And 30 of the respondents told us they never heard of the s. R. S. And the responses were short to read. They didnt know the program was aware. But knowing the tools existed in lower income suburban communities is a big issue. There are plenty of improvements we can make but there is a huge divergence not in the suburbs of chicago. How communities deal with affordability issues, financial accounting. And communities like chicago with the staff capacity to employ best practices largely are doing so. And the city of chicago, we are eplacing water mains that were installed during teddy roosevelt. Served us well, those trees did. Many communities if they dont have the capacity arent doing the sort of things. It is not uncommon for communities to lose 40 of their water through leaks of their pipe system. And if you went home from the grocery storm and 40 of your groceries plue out, you would realize you have a problem. T thats common in our storm Water Management in addition to water supply issues. Communities fail to update their rates on any sort of regular schedule. The federal government can do many things through incentives through scoring, through grants made available through the setaside programs and the basic requirements of the program to encourage Asset Management plans. And my estimation, it works pretty well, but a lot of communities dont have access to it. Communities struggle to do the preengineering planning. You have to submit your engineering plan. And if you dont have the resources to do that, you cant it. Reimbursed for im cognizant of the need. I have lived in five different states and i get the differences, but there are best practices being played out and we havent figured out to put them in one package and might be time for greater consistency. Now that we have figured out some things that work in these different states. At the heart of it, with the experience that we saw in the survey that went out statewide, the program at least in illinois is slow and cumbersome to use, very different in trying to go for a bond or to a private bank for a loan. Application times are very long and can screw up schedules. If you are a consultant because you are not getting a response, that drives up costs and can delay your projects. This is not just an illinois issue. For all the things we can do to make the tools, i dont think the money is money. Infusion for cities like chicago, little rock to have the capacity and makes a lot of sense. The point i mentioned about having Water Utilities, many of those communities do not have the technical capacity to be able to receive federal funding or apply for it and the issue is the fragmentation of the system. We have a handful of sources and yet we have 400 utilities managing these different systems. And many areas of the country are just like this. When every utility operates as a public work department, a lot of the decisions that get made are wrapped up. And so if you are looking at adjusting water rates and providing schooling and things you have to make these decisions with these calculations in mind and rate increases get delayed, infrastructure gets delayed and water is dripping out. The fragmentation come body pounds. If a Community Like we have in many of our suburbs across the country has lost population and lost 10,000 people, when people move to the suburbs, they dont take pumps and pipes with them. So you have a Smaller Community and smaller Industrial Base paying for the same amount of pipes. And you are having to squeeze water from a storm here. Rates increase rates will have to increase while incomes are decreasing. We have communities in illinois, Median Household Income is about 13,000, so it has other problems going on, too, they pay 12. 50 which is what a family of four would consume. Income , median try to wrap it up. The disparities that are occurring here and the size and the scale. As we think about new funding, the funding is great but encouraging through different ways for the utilities to start consolidation so we can get bigger economies of scale and think how the money goes out and not putting into the ground but solving some of these issues. m happy to talk about it. Senator you know, we are really proud, this river used to be labeled toxic but just polluted now and thats the source of water for many communities and that was an improvement and i thought oh my goodness. When addressing infrastructure needs we must tackle our most pressing challenges and there is one thing to be said be lowhanging fruit. Best practices and as it management policies and efficient sustainability plans are commonsense between state and Decision Makers for making the Infrastructure Investments. Hardworking families want to know before a single dollar is being spent that everything is being maximized the effectiveness of those dollars. What else can we do to improve the relationship between Decision Makers and taxpayers as it relates to funding opportunities . Increasing awareness through all communication channels. With all of these municipalities we have, i know one mayor in the suburban area who has a Water Infrastructure background. A lot of folks coming into office dont have a background in these sorts of things and need to learn on the job which is a tough way if you have a massive Water Infrastructure ystem. And until we get to a crisis not something that a whole lot of the citizens Pay Attention to. If they see rate increases being proposed, if they see it, maybe then they Pay Attention, but we dont have while we have you dont have too Many Public Works Commission of citizens participating in some of the decision making. That is a best practice that could be encouraged. People are paying more attention to it. And the other is starting to political o decouple decisions from rate setting and make it more comfortable for people to adjust water rates so they can keep up with infrastructure back loads and not getting a 40 rate increase but more modest increases or decreases on a regular basis and not so inflammatory. It might improve the ability. A lot of it is communication because this is not an issue we talk about very much. Senator saying what you said about mayors come in without this water background, many small communities in illinois and elsewhere may not have that capacity, expertise or resources to deal with the financial clean ges to providing water. You have toll address this, whether it is technical expertise. There are something called setaside program and can take some of the capitalization money and use it for different kinds of grants. Some states use that to fund grants to look for consolidation. Some use it for Technical Assistance and staff building at the local level. The states are using these setasides in different ways. And in one state there might be a program to encourage collaboration. So getting consistency might be time to do it. Starting to consider consolidation and lumping these to do it in a larger economy of scales, get better bonding ratings and think differently, would be helpful to. Or urban snt a rural thing. At could apply through the spectrum. Senator if you would like to add. Use your mike, please. Peertopeer initiative and willing to share it with other utilities. They are willing to share the information and information would be important. E. P. A. Are working on peertopeer program to connect people with resources. I think that will be of great help. Senator thank you very much. Let me ask you a question and you have spent a lot of time talking about the program, mr. Ellis, what do you think we could do from here that could change this program to make it work efficiently, because you agree there are some obstacles out there. Have you talked about that . Sure, one of the big differences between states and you heard andy mention, some states have decoupled the program from whoever their state Regulatory Agency is. The loan program is managed by someone more like each state has a different one but like a finance authority, someone who is in the business of issuing loans and able to operate faster. Some states have programs in their equivalent of the e. P. A. And that in my estimation can slow things down. Having professional management staff working on these loan programs and other loan programs that are not related to Water Infrastructure is one of the things that can speed things up and again, accomplishing states to look at trangsing the program over to what it should be which is a loan Program First and foremost would be one of the ways you could start to encourage some greater speed and get these loan programs to function more like going to the bank to get a loan for a project for your house. That is faster time programs and would be huge. If you are applying for a loan and you have to retain engineering consultants, the costs buildup and you are paygo for paying for someone to wait. And the best practices are known in state Revolving Loan funds. Maryland has a couple and south dakota has a couple and texas has a couple. But we havent put it in a package. You know the different states that are represented here and in my state of oklahoma oak, it is not unlike the state of arkansas, our big problem has been when i was in the state legislature before most of you guys were born, at that time, the big problem was transferring water from the one state. We have we have and had this problem for a long time. My wife and i have been married 57 years and her father was chairman of the Water Resources board and we have addressed these problems for a long period of time. Im very familiar with your area. Im from eastern oklahoma and im pretty close to your home area and im fascinated that you took the time to go out and locate people and help them because you needed help. You were fortunate in having senator boozman come and be assistance to you. Give us live examples of what you have been able to do, one man helping neighbors resolve these problems . Any time i see somebody hauling water, i take my time to talk to them and explain my story and give them insight of what they need to do and speak with senator boozman and get the word out. But i think pushing this saving act forward, you know what i mean, and getting the financing to get people help. Senator most of the people you talked to. Rogers is a major city. And does president take more than five minutes outside of rogers to be in remote areas and those are the people that have problems. Im shocked that you did not have a water system when you are how many miles of rogers . Probably five minutes within downtown rogers. And i drive past the Water Treatment plant every day to go to work, shop, whatever and on that sign where they treat the water, they are shipping it to washington county, which is the county south of us which has no impact on our little community. Senator there is an abuppedance of water. I live right by beaver lake. 1,200 miles of shorefront. Senator senator. Senator i want to thank you. Your story is heroic and showing what it means to be a citizen. And im really moved by that. And this is an issue that folks not just in communities like arkansas but places like my state in new jersey but we are in fight of this. Is a United States of america. And so i recently decided to go outside of our state to draw attention to these crises. We have half a million homes that lack access of hot and cold running water. They dont have water running to a bathtub or shower or toilet and this is 11,000 homes in new jersey. This is a national problem. And the federal government, we form this government for the common defense and common security. And not to have this is astonishing to me. I went a few weekends ago to ural alabama and to visit low ncome africanamerican communities. Familiarous county where marchers that were going going across the edmund pet ties bridge, it was stunning that they had no septic systems and no assuming systems and septic systems that failed because of the type of failed. They had raw assuming. Was stunned to see raw stuge assuming running behind peoples home. I sat down with folks to talk about the Ranking Member tom talk about tropical diseases and they said did you know we have the diseases in the United States of america . I said no, that cant be. And look at hookworm in the United States in the United States and it is stunning to me. This is outrageous environmental injustice that no child growing up and i saw in alabama so many africanamerican communities. Your advocacy is important. And i want to thank you. And what you are doing is bringing light that is important to our nation as a whole. Mr. Griffin, andy, your friend and i wanted your comment that we almost got to the finish line. Senator inhofe, im sorry he left, but i was going to praise him because he has been a good partner of mine. Many people confuse us because we look so much alike. Im the robin to his batman and i was able to get the trust fund bill and the Water Utility Work Force Development program into e wrrda bill and it was done thanks to the republican partners. But those providings were stripped out of the final bill. I just was wondering if you could describe very briefly how the trust Fund Initiative and the Work Force Development programs could have helped our country. Thank you, senator. In our industry theres thing called a silver tsunami. People are ready to retire and eave the industry. Mr. Kricun 50 to 60 of people are eligible for retirement in a few years. We need to look for replacements. Most of our wasteWater Treatment plants are in economic distressed communities. Thats why the Treatment Plant was put there or the plant was put there, it became that way. No one wants to live next to the wasteWater Treatment plant. We often have to look beyond our communities, our neighboring communities, to find workers because they dont have the skills or training. If we could develop a Work Force Training program, that would be a tremendous opportunity to actually have people who work, who live in our neighborhoods, work at our Water Treatment plants. Be the replacement workers and bring up their neighborhoods and communities. I think its a tremendous opportunity. Thats urban or rural. I think its a tremendous opportunity. Water treatment jobs, wastewater, drinking Drinking Water treatment jobs, are good, solid jobs. Theres a scarcity of replacement workers. Were often in communities where people need jobs the most. And the Infrastructure Trust program. Its an absolutely necessary as well. Our dplus grade isnt acceptable. Its only going to get worse with time. I strongly support your efforts and the bipartisan efforts and hope that youre successful this time. One last thing i wanted to say with regard to the poor communities across the country, rural and urban. Youre absolutely right. Thats why this peer to peer effort is really important. Our utilities are willing to share the knowledge and resources. What we need the help we need is to identify the small towns and or cities that lack capacity so we can be match made with them and assist them. Thats help they thank we could really use from the federal government that we could really use from the federal government. Mr. Booker this is one of the perfect examples why we in the United States of america, whether you live in a rural community, urban community, we have a common pain. We must join in a common purpose. This is the United States of america. This is a shame on our nation, that we have children growing up in these rural and urban poor communities that have such unconscionable realities. Im thankful again for the bipartisan work on this on rectifying this. Thank you, senator booker. As you know, once again, the chairs moved again, once again. Senator inhofe had to leave to go to another committee. Senator boozman should be back shortly. I have to agree that senator booker is correct. He and senator inhofe look an awfully lot alike. With the exception that senator inhofes age shows a little bit more. [laughter] occasionally. We notice the likeness there. Im from south dakota. Weve got the same challenges everybody else does when it comes to water and Water Systems. Mr. Rounds weve got nine separate native american tribes on reservations there. Water quality is critical there. Yet theyre in rural areas. And we still struggle to provide water, high quality water there. And weve got a couple of projects. We call them rural Water Systems. Sounds a lot like what youve been looking at in arkansas in terms of well water and so forth. But in our particular case, weve got the missouri river, which runs right down through the center of the state with great, high quality water and weve got a very efficient way of being able to deliver quality water, if we can get it to locations. I agree its very, very important. Weve seen the ability of states, when they have the resources, to coordinate with rural Water Systems and provide individuals and local areas who really want to improve the quality of life the opportunity to do so. Were sitting right now at a time in which we have very low Interest Rates. Longterm low Interest Rates. Its probably a real opportunity to look at the ability to bring ssets together and extend in a longterm payback period, the opportunity to invest in infrastructure. I most certainly think that rural Water Systems, along with and the rehabilitation of existing municipal Water Systems, this is a real opportunity to look at it. Im just thinking back in terms of the story that youve told. Im just going to begin this by saying, when i first met my wife, she lived in a rural area, near lake preston, south dakota. And they hauled water at that time. Theyd thaul in once a week into a sis alternative and back out again. What that also meant was the quality of the water was not the best. It meant that everything was stained. The pipes would fill up, get clog and Everything Else clogged and Everything Else. I remember her dad, who is now in his early 90s, was the first president of a rural water system there. And they coordinated in that group. To put together over a period of years a rural water system called king brook. Which is still in existence today and growing rapidly. They could not have done it if there was not an organization of local people willing to put some money in, some revenue in. Lay out the plans. But then also to go to local lenders to begin with to borrow some money. And then to go back in through federal resources and state resources in order to borrow longterm, to improve the quality of life. What it meant was you could actually have pipes that worked. What it meant was that you had high quality Drinking Water. It meant that you had livestock that had high quality water. And it also meant you could have a thing like a dishwasher in your house, besides the husband after dinner. It meant that dishwashers would actually work, the quality of the water. I think the really important that we talk about the need for this type of infrastructure as being on the top. Although the right along with highways, roads and bridges. Im curious, i really like to know, and mr. Frazee, in terms of how then to finance for your part of arkansas, was it a case to they were able to come in and help with assistance, and were the folks that were the recipients of the Water Systems that you had, did they have monthly water bill that theyd pay as well at that stage of the game . Is that the way it worked . Mr. Frazee yes. What they did, they funded all the projects. You have to pay back veterans were discounted. You know what i mean . Me, i just have a payment like everybody else. Very minimal. No interest. Its great. Mr. Rounds was it organized through the state or through a local district . Do you know . Mr. Frazee it was i want to say it was organized through the Water Well Trust. Mr. Rounds ok. Mr. Frazee they found all the lending or supported all the lending. Mr. Rounds thank you. Mr. Kricun, with regard to the financing and so forth that youve used in the past, can you share a little bit about whether or not, like in this particular case, i like the idea of the states really being in charge of the operations and then if we need the financial backing and so forth, we look at the federal level, but i like the idea of block grants. I like the idea of having access to guaranteed loans and so forth. But Revenue Bonds and so forth. Can you talk a little bit about the kind of financing you guys have seen and the success that youve had and what the challenges were . Mr. Kricun yes, thank you, senator rounds. So we basically were able to optimize our entire wasteWater Treatment plant and install new equipment, expressly through the state Revolving Fund in new jersey. The new Jersey Environmental Infrastructure Trust. Because the operation and Maintenance Cost of the new equipment was lower than the old equipment, because less maintenance, because its newer new newer, and also less electricity costs, because newer generation, our operation and Maintenance Cost savings were greater than the annual debt service costs. The Infrastructure Trust, the s. R. F. , was the difference between a go and a know go. Interest of interest instead of Interest Rates at 5 , we were less than 1 . As a result, we built our entire wasteWater Treatment plant, plus helped the city of cam denvers combined sewer system too, theyre one of the poorer cities in the nation, while holding our rate. Our rate was 337 in 1996. Dds 532 today in 2017. Manyly through some internal efficiency, but manyly through the s. R. F. It really is a very successful and helpful way to help us with our mission. Mr. Rounds i couldnt agree more. I think its a very important tool for us to make sure its maintained into the future. I thank you. My time has expired. Senator whitehouse. Whithewhithe thank you to all the witnesses white white thank you to all the witness mr. Whitehouse thank you to all the witnesseses for being here. I represent rhode island and i have the same memories from my days doing Water Utility rate cases. Its still not so great. Heres a piece of pipe. [laughter] that came out of the kingston water district. The manager, henry mire, sent me that to remind me of what was going on. That pipe goes back to about the 1920s. As you can see, its filled in pretty good. But he also sent this is from old kingston village. This piece of pipe comes from the kingstown road. As you can see from the side, this is plastic piping. This is much more recent. Buchek it out and on. Look at the size of the remaining apper tour in that pipe. Aperture in that pipe. So these pieces of pipe are kind of touchable evidence of the problems that we have and the scope of the possible Infrastructure Solution that we could have. So i wanted to flag that particular situation. I also wanted to flag another situation that is more a problem in our coastal states than in other states. And that is let me show you what this is. This is a map of rhode island. Its this is the northern art of rhode island. Our capital city, providence, is right here. This is warwick neck. This is bristol and warren. What we have here is the latest information from our Coastal Resources management counsel about Sea Level Rise happening along our coasts. Here is the existing bay. Light blue is actually land. Now. Right now thats land. But what were looking at in the light blue it all these areas are expected to be blood flooded and under water flooded and under water by 2100 if we dont get ahead of whats happening with Sea Level Rise. The state of rhode island turns into a rhode island archipelago. Warwick neck becomes warwick neck island. Warren and bristol becomes warren and bristol island and on and on you go. Behind all of this blue, of flooded land, there will be a zone of potential storm flood zones and velocity zones that interfere with Property Ownership there as well. So we are looking at a potential economic catastrophe if we dont get ahead of this. And the point for the purpose of this hearing is that right about here, the town of it warren has its Sewage Treatment facility. If you live near the coast, if youre building sewage Treatment Facilities, youre building them right along the coast line because you want that gravity assist bringing the water and the sewage down to the Treatment Plant. So when you start to look at flooding exposure like this, youre starting to look at significant replacement requirements or hardening and protection requirements for our infrastructure. Were not even really talking about that. I know were not even talking about that. Because Sea Level Rise is driven by Climate Change and were not allowed to talk about Climate Change here in the congress and any effective or meaningful way. But this is coming. And the infrastructure along these coastal areas needs to be part of our conversation. If you would like to comment on either of those. We have a minute of time for you to respond. Either to my good old nearly filled in pipes, or to the coastal predicament for Water Infrastructure. Mr. Kricun thank you very much. Ill try to reply to both. With regard to the infrastructure issue. As you know, the a. S. C. Has a dplus grade for water. Dgrade for Water Infrastructure. An emergency repair, after a failure, costs five to seven times more than a planned replacement. So the not as though you can make the pipe last longer once it fails. It will fail. It will be much more costly. Not to mention the damage and the risk to people if it happens in an emergency. Mr. Whitehouse if you had a responsible program could you get five times as much done instead of waiting for it to fail. Mr. Kricun thats right. With regard to the coastal issue. In new jersey bespeak of climate history. In 2012 we were already our Treatment Plants on coast were already inundated. Billions of gallons of raw sewage into the river. Atlantic ocean and the river. Thats how the climate was five years ago. Even if it doesnt worsen, theres a big infrastructure gap that we have to meet. What were trying to do is Green Infrastructure to capture storm water. Green energy to improve our resiliency against Power Outages and also hardening of our plan itself to make us less vulnerable to the climate as it is. I know Climate Change is controversial and i do believe that the climate will worsen. Mr. Whitehouse its not really controversial. The just politically controversial. Mr. Kricun even if it doesnt worsen, we have a gap we should be working to correct. If we correct that now, we can also look at projections like our Delaware River is supposed to rise by 18 inches in the next 30 years. We should be looking for catching up the gap right now, but also looking for projections ahead to be safe and protect us for the future. Mr. Whitehouse thank you. My time is expired. I suppose i should leave it there. Ill turn this back over to the senator. I would ask one moment of privilege. Would senator whitehouse, hes been a champion for the issues surrounding the changes that are occurring in rhode island and around rhode island. I would suggest that if there is one area of agreement among everyone, whether or not we think that the current plans for how we slow down changes in the climate, the one thing we recognize is that these changes are occurring. Mr. Rounds and i think that brings about a very important discussion point which is, how do we go about address the needs, which he has so continuously and eloquently spoke in terms of what it does to his state in particular, along with a lot of other places along the coast. I think thats an area of agreement that we will find among all of us. Mr. Whitehouse thank you, sir. I look forward to exploring that. Round round absolutely. Thank you mr. Rounds absolutely. Thank you. Mr. Boozman thank you for sitting in. I apologize. Im in a situation where we desperately wanted to get this hearing done and then we had to reschedule and then all of a sudden they decided to have a vote on the appropriations committee. So ive been having to vote on the agriculture and then energy and water. Theres not very many things that i have to do, but those are things you simply have to do. In fact, the reason that weve had mixed attendance on both sides is that theres a commerce hearing going on as we speak. Also, a number of people on this committee are also on the appropriations committee. It is what it is. But we do appreciate you being here. I just have a couple questions. Really of you, mike. In your testimony, you discussed the hardships of having to haul water and check Water Quality every day. I think the film was excellent. It really summed up. Tell us a little bit about how that has made your life a little easier on a day to day basis. Mr. Frazee it gives me a lot of time. Time to spend with my family. Free time to do other things. Than having to worry about hauling water. Its freed up a bunch of time. I cant thank you enough or the Water Well Trust for helping my area out. Mr. Boozman again, just in final followup to that. You were able to get help in the sense, you know, finding out who to contact. How do we do a better job, what would you suggest as far as outreach, so that other people in this situation that you are in, how do we make it eier for them to know easier for them to know that there is help available . Mr. Frazee i think the savings act needs to be pushed by the usda and the e. P. A. Word needs to be out. We need to get the financing to help out areas like the area that i live in. That theres no funding there and were kind of looked past. Mr. Boozman very good. Now well turn senator card whon has been a great champion cardin who has been a great champion on the water issues. He and i have had the opportunity to serve, i was his Ranking Member a couple of congresses ago. Hes just done a tremendous job in this particular area. Mr. Cardenas i just wanted to come caredcared i just wanted to come by mr. Cardin i just wanted to come by. This subcommittee, one of the most productive sessions in congress is when the two of us on this subcommittee worked together. I really do appreciate your commitment to Water Infrastructure. My staff has told me that most of the points that i wanted to get response from witnesses have already been made. Thank you. Our chairman has taken the leadership on additional tools to modernize our Water Infrastructure. In maryland i could tell you about major water main breaks every day. I could tell you about river road in montgomery county, when it was a river. And people had to be rescued through helicopters. I can tell you about the washington beltway being closed as a result of water main breaks. I can talk to about an area having to be evacuate because of a water main break. Downtown baltimore having to have detours because of water main breaks. Thats all since ive been in the senate. We have major, major problems. I could also tell but one day, mr. Chairman, finding out from the public works in baltimore that they discovered a pipe that was still being used, that was made out of wood. Weve got some really old systems in maryland. Hat need tremendous attention. One of our great problems with Water Infrastructure is its hidden until we have a break. Were wasting so much water and energy every day. There are Public Health risks, no question. Yes, we have existing tools. We have municipal financing. We have taxexempt bonds. We have a Revolving Fund. We have the initiative that the chairman has taken the leadership on for additional ways that we can deal with the planning. All these are important programs. Weve also joined together as a sense of congress to try to increase the amount of money that are made available under these tools. We recognize the budgets are tough. But we also recognize theres a bipartisan desire to increase the amount of money to be put into infrastructure in this country, including Water Infrastructure. So all those are extremely positive signs. I just really wanted to come by to tell you, were going to look for every creative way we can to give you additional opportunities and tools in order to deal with this. The last point i would make, this also involves another one of my passions, which is the chesapeake bay. And our environment. Because as we deal with Water Infrastructure, how we deal with a lot of the issues that also involves the environment. Theres many, many reasons why we need to look for creative ways and there are several initiatives. None of which are partisan. We really need to continue to make that progress. The Water Resources Development Act last year made significant progress in that regard. A lot of the bills that members of this committee worked on were incorporated in the final wrda bill. Some were pulled out in the house. I thank our chairman because were working together to try to get those provisions now moving in this congress, that were not able to get done that were not able to get done in the last congress that deal with Water Infrastructure. So i thank the witnesses and let you know that this is an extremely high priority for all of us on this committee. The great to be on this committee for many reasons. But one of the principle reasons is that we have some incredible members that i work with, including the chairman and the Ranking Member of the subcommittee, and i thank them both for their leadership on his issue. Mr. Boozman thank you so much. We do appreciate your leadership. As you pointed out, we really do have a Good Committee thats working in a very bipartisan way o sort these things out. The road that mike lives on, that area, you know, its republicans, its democrats, and who cares . Its just the idea of providing the service that people desperately need. Mr. Rounds i just want to point out. The reason im pop hg in and out , mr. Cardin i apologize not being here for the testimony. Mr. Boozman i appreciate you pointing that out. Im told senator gillibrand is on the way. Well wait just a few minutes for her. Do you have any comments . Mr. Ellsworth i would like to respond to one of the questions mr. Whitehouse mentioned. When those pipes fill up with sediment or whatever, you lose the original design capacity of that pipe. So as we think about infrastructure, were often talking about building new things. But just the basic maintenance of going in and cleaning out the pipes is also something a lot of communities cant afford. Els els arent doing, whatever mr. Ellis arent doing, whatever. That same phenomenon is also occurring on private property. A lot of what weve talked about today is Public Infrastructure with the exception of mikes situation in needing to build wells for private homes. In an urban environment, the Biggest Issue is the lateral lines that connect your home to the municipal the pipeline. Its actually in those lines where we have lots of older pipes either filled like that or pipes with lead in them, from bigone days when we used to do that. Youve got about 30 feet for every private property out there. Tad mr. There have been a couple of communities, i can think of madison, wisconsin, and gillsburg, illinois, that have used the s. R. F. Program to put money into the hands of private Property Owners to take those pipes out. That project can be 20,000, 30,000 per home. You cant really ask a homeowner to do that. They probably dont have the money. If they are, theyre saving it up for something he will. Finding a way to use the s. R. F. To tackle project on private property is something were only really starting to grass grapple with. Whether thats well installation or fixing these lateral line issues going into the house. And then issues coming back out of cracks in the sewage and storm water pipes where you have stuff leeching out into lawns. Figuring out how to use these Public Resources or publicprivate partnerships to work on private properties is one of our next big challenges. A lot of the infrastructure is ot publicly owned. Thanks. Mr. Kricun as youve discussed, our infrastructure needs to be improved in order to protect the Public Health and the environment for safe Drinking Water and protect against combined sewage overflows and flooding. Doing so will not only be necessary to protect the Public Health and the environment, but also in job creation. Not only for the construction but also for the maintenance of the new systems. So i think its definitely a winwin. I also agree with what josh said about the efficacy of the maintenance of the existing collection systems. We did a study where by cleaning the pipes out on a regular basis , it improved their capacity by 30 to 35 . Thats a huge win. The problem is that economic stressed communities sometimes lack those that capacity. Thats why i think in addition to publicprivate partnerships, publicpublic partnerships, where utilities assist each other with resources would really be helping in getting the most out of our industry and our infrastructure. Thank you. Mr. Boozman senator gillibrand. Thank you so much. Ive had to miss a great part of the hearing because of our committee duties. I know youre in the same situation. Thank you for coming by. Mrs. Gillibrand thank you. In your testimony, you talk about how after superstorm sandy, over 10 billion gallons of raw and partially treated sewage flooded streets and ruined homes. This raises an important point about the need to rethink about resilience, to the impact of Climate Change and extreme weather when making investments to repair and replace aging water pipes. We need to be thinking ahead. For example, we have water pipes in new york that are over 100 years old. And nearly half of new york citys water pipes were built before world war ii. We should be thinking about the next 50 to 100 years now, when we Design Projects today. What should we be doing to improve how we make decisions about Water Infrastructure investments, to take into account extreme weather, Sea Level Rise and other climaterelated impactss . Mr. Kricun thank you, senator. One thing we need to do is make sure were more resilient and less vulnerable to severe events. Hurricane sandy occurred five years ago. Thats already climate history. Our infrastructure was already proven to be inadequate for how the climate was and how it is now. If the climate does worse, then that gap will only widen. One of the things were doing is trying to implement Green Energy Programs so were 100 off the grid. Installing solar panels, a power system to capture gas and turn it into electricity. Our goal is to be off the grid by 2020. Reducing reliance on the electric grid would be very important. Number one. Number two, Green Infrastructure and combined sewer communities is very important. Youre sucking up the storm water and preventing it from getting into the combined sewer. In addition, as weve discussed, the infrastructure is rated a dplus. It need to be replaced. When the being replaced, it ought to be replaced with the notion of the possibility of climate worsening and therefore being sized appropriately to make sure that it is properly ized for today and the future. Mrs. Gillibrand over the past several years, we have seen Drinking Water emergencies across the United States. Where many lives have been put at risk because of contamination from toxic chemicals. The most visible of these was in obviously flint, michigan. But closer to home for me, like people in upstate new york have been experiencing nothing short of a tragedy because their Drinking Water has been tainted with a chemical. Weve seen it across my state in places like newburgh and on long island. When we talk about infrastructure, we need to be talking about how were going keep our Drinking Water safe. Thanks real challenge for small communities, this is a real challenge for small communities. This is for the whole panel. How can we do a better job of helping small communities test for and address contaminants in heir Drinking Water systems . Mr. Frazee i think the usda and e. P. A. Need to address those issues in small communities like where im from. We need help from our government, federal government. Mrs. Gillibrand thank you. Mr. Kricun thank you. For example, in the instance of lead, i think lead aware seasons very important. We not only need to make sure that were treating water at the source, the Drinking Water Treatment Plants it self, but making sure that the conduits from the plant to the home and also the internal plumbing within the home are also subject to lead plumbing. Most homes built prior to 1980 could have leaded soer. Even if the water coming from the plant is safe, the children who use the water may be tanlted with lead, the water may be tanlted with lead by sitting overnight in lead plumbing. Lead awareness, making sure theyre aware of filters or rung the water to reduce the risk running the water to reduce the risk. With regard to contaminants and chemicals, i agree with mr. Frazee that its important to have a federal and state assistance and maybe even hub utilities nearby. A larger city nearby that might be able to lend resources to smaller communities. And leverage that. I think we need to give these small communities, whether it be urban or rural, as much assistance as possible. Mrs. Gillibrand thank you. Mr. Ellis in terms of testing. The tests that needs to owe secure both at source water occur is both at source water and also as its coming out of the tap. Its such a distributed system, you need lots of people out doing it. I think this issue of water testing, pointbased testing is a great opportunity for schools and citizen scientists and that could be through programs at noaa or somewhere else, to get resources to School Programs or other organizations that can go out on a consistent basis with established protocols for testing, collect that data and send it in to the proper management officials. On your previous question, if i could for two seconds. One of the issues we have with planning infrastructure to be more resilient, and this is not a coastal issue or an inland issue. We have great divergence between states but also within states about the actual data that theyre using to project how much rainfall we might have or what climate conditions might be. I know in illinois we have some communities who are using data from the 1960s, that was projecting out weather events. That was all based on information that they collected before the 1960s. So as precipitation patterns change, if youre using data from the 196s to, 1970s, youre not able to size infrastructure appropriately for what we predict to be weather events. Were always looking backwards when we size the infrastructure. Because thats the precipitation data that were using. So getting greater consistency, one, to get everyone to update and use the latest data on precipitation projections in particular, would be helpful. But then greater consistency across communities so that we can get better best practices out there on how we size and build this infrastructure across states. We cant be building stuff for 2060 using data from 1960. But we are. Mrs. Gillibrand thank you. Mr. Boozman thanks so much. Senator duckworth. Ms. Duckworth i just want to thank the chairman for having this hearing. This is incredibly useful and i think eye opening for many people. I think one of the things weve not touched on, it bears further looking into is the Public Infrastructure system. Especially when it comes to Public Schools. There are many, many Public Schools in this country that are built well before the 1980s. As you talk about the watt that are sits in the schools watt that are sits in the schools water that sits in the schools overnight. You can go into schools and test the water be, and this happened in chicago where you have one drinking fountain that fails the lead test and one that passes. You replace the entire piping system within the school itself. Youre never going to resolve the problem. This is going to be a problem for rural communities, communities that dont have the resources and the high tax base, and so this reinforces the need for real Infrastructure Investment. I really just want to thank the chairman for bringing this to everybody everyones attention. Thank you. Mr. Boozman thank you. Again, thank you for pointing out this is, as the witnesses have, and even the witnesses here, you know, where youve got very urban area, very rural area, and essentially with the same problems. We appreciate you very much, senator duckworth, and your staff for the job theyve done and helping us get ready for this. I appreciate my staff. Thank you all for coming and testifying. This has been just a very helpful hearing as we go forward. With that, mentioning that the record will be open for two weeks for any addition. He meet something adjourned. Thank you. [captioning performed by the national captioning institute, which is responsible for its caption content and accuracy. Visit ncicap. Org] [captions Copyright National cable satellite corp. 2017] cspans washington journal live every day with news and policy issues that impact you. Coming up friday morning, friday, a discussion on the Current Crisis in venezuela and what the current domestic and International Ramifications could be for solving the conflict. The event is hosted by the Atlantic Councils Latin America Center and it starts live tomorrow at 9 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan2. You can also watch online at cspan. Org or on the free cspan radio app. Our live coverage of the commissioning of the u. S. S. Gerald r. Ford is saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern. The supercarrier, named after our 38th president , is the navys newest Nuclear Powered hightech aircraft carrier. President trump will attend the ceremony at the naval base in norfolk, virginia. And deliver remarks to the more than 14,000 people expected to attend. Saturday at 10 00 a. M. Eastern on cspan and cspan. Org. And listen live on the free span radio app. I think one of the hugest problems in capitalism today is the insane c. E. O. Pay. We can get into later how it became insane. But it is harming the companies that use it. Its harming the employees. Its terrible for the economy. It is one of the principle drivers of increasing economic equality in this country. Saturday, at 7 00 p. M. , on book tv. Steven clifford, former c. E. O. Of king broadcasting company, talks about his book, the c. E. O. Pay machine and sunday at 1 30 p. M. Eastern, dr. Willy parker, a christian and abortion provider, talks about his book, lifes work a moral argument for choice. So we push back on the morbidity of abortion. We push back on the claim that its dangerous. We havent made the case that women have, and people who are making decisions about reproduction, a process that occurs in their body, that it is within their agency as human beings to make those decisions. For more of this weekends chedule, go to booktv. Org. Earlier today, a house subcommittee held a hearing on gang violence. Sex trafficking. And drugs. We heard testimony from federal, state and local Law Enforcement officials on the relationship between gangs and how social media has impacted the fight against these crimes. This is an hour. It is now 10 00. The subcommittee on crime, terrorism and Homeland Security will come to order. Without objection, the chairs authorized to declare recesses of the subcommittee at any time