FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 9, 2000
CONTACT: Lisette McSoud Mondello
SENATE PANEL APPROVES HUTCHISON REQUEST FOR $20 MILLION
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FOR COLONIAS INFRASTRUCTURE IMPROVEMENTS
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- A key Senate committee has approved Senator Kay Bailey Hutchison's request for increased funding in FY 2001 for infrastructure improvements along the U.S.-Mexico border.
The Senate Appropriations Committee voted Tuesday to provide $20 million to continue construction of water and wastewater treatment systems in the colonias, where 200,000 people live, some of whom have no access to safe drinking water and sewage disposal. This environmental threat causes seemingly intractable health problems for border residents.
"These funds will make a real difference in the lives of real people all along our border," Senator Hutchison said. "We will be able to make badly needed sanitary and environmental improvements. For too long, people in these communities have lived without the basic amenities that everyone else in America takes for granted."
The U.S.-Mexico border area has one of the highest rates of hepatitis infection is the national. In addition, the region's alarming tuberculosis rate is three times the national average.
From her first days in the Senate, Senator Hutchison has been responsible for getting more than $300 million for infrastructure improvements such as water and wastewater treatment systems in border region colonias. In 1998, she wrote and passed legislation that made it possible for every dollar of state spending on colonias improvements to be matched by five dollars of federal spending.
The full Senate is expected to vote on this appropriation bill later this summer.
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