S 2946 · 113th Congress 2013–2015, ended

Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2014

Fact sheet

Latest action · Dec 8, 2014 Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 625.

Progress

Where this bill reached, and when. A stage with no date was not reached; one that failed a vote and later carried shows the date it carried.

  1. IntroducedNov 19, 2014
  2. Passed SenateNot reached
  3. Passed HouseNot reached
  4. To the PresidentNot reached
  5. Became lawNot reached

Summary

Senator Paul Simon Water for the World Act of 2014 - (Sec. 2) Expresses the sense of Congress that: (1) water and sanitation are critically important resources that impact many aspects of human life, and (2) the United States should be a global leader in helping provide sustainable access to clean water and sanitation for the world's most vulnerable populations.

(Sec. 3) Amends the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as added by the Senator Paul Simon Water for the Poor Act of 2005, to include the provision of safe hygiene among the goals of the program providing assistance for safe water and sanitation.

(Sec. 4) Directs the Administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), or the Administrator's designee, to serve concurrently as the USAID Global Water Coordinator, and to:

  • oversee USAID water, sanitation, and hygiene programs;
  • lead the implementation and revision, at least once every five years, of USAID's portion of the Global Water Strategy; and
  • expand USAID's program capacity in high priority countries.

Directs the Secretary of State, or the Secretary's designee, to serve concurrently as the Department of State Special Advisor for Water Resources, and serve similar functions in the Department of State as the Global Water Coordinator does in USAID.

(Sec. 5) Directs the Administrator to ensure that USAID projects and programs are designed to achieve maximum impact and long-term sustainability by prioritizing countries based upon:

  • the population using unimproved drinking water or sanitation sources;
  • the number of children younger than five years of age who died from diarrheal disease; and
  • the government's capacity and commitment to work with the United States to improve access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Directs the President to: (1) designate by October 1, 2015, at least 10 countries as high priority countries to be the primary recipients of U.S. government assistance under this Act during FY2016, and notify Congress of such designations; and (2) make new designations each year.

(Sec. 6) Directs the President, not later than October 1, 2017, and every five years thereafter, through the Secretary, the Administrator, and the heads of other federal departments and agencies, to submit a single government-wide Global Water Strategy to Congress that describes how the United States intends to:

  • increase access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene in high priority countries;
  • improve the management of water resources and watersheds in such countries; and
  • work to prevent and resolve intra- and trans-boundary conflicts over water resources in such countries.

Requires: (1) the Global Water Strategy to include plans by USAID and the Department on how each entity carries out its responsibilities under this Act, and (2) the Administrator to develop for each high priority country a plan to increase access to safe water, sanitation, and hygiene.

Cosponsors 4

Members who signed on, in the order they did. Signatures ran from Nov 19, 2014 to Dec 9, 2014, with 3 there on the day it was introduced.

SeatCosponsorSigned on
R-TNBob CorkerOriginalNov 19, 2014
D-DEChristopher A. CoonsOriginalNov 19, 2014
R-AZJeff FlakeOriginalNov 19, 2014
D-WAPatty MurrayDec 9, 2014

Actions 5

Everything that happened, newest first.

  1. Dec 8, 2014Committee on Foreign Relations. Reported by Senator Menendez with an amendment in the nature of a substitute. With written report No. 113-286.
  2. Dec 8, 2014Placed on Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. Calendar No. 625.
  3. Dec 4, 2014Committee on Foreign Relations. Ordered to be reported with amendments favorably.
  4. Nov 19, 2014Introduced in Senate
  5. Nov 19, 2014Read twice and referred to the Committee on Foreign Relations. (text of measure as introduced: CR S6154-6156)

Subjects

Assigned by the Library of Congress. Policy area: International Affairs.

Text 2

Each version as it was printed, newest first.

  1. Dec 8, 2014Reported to Senate
  2. Nov 19, 2014Introduced in Senate

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Everything here is as published by Congress: the summary is the Congressional Research Service's, the action wording is the clerks', and the subjects are the Library of Congress's. How far it got is read from the actions themselves, taking the most recent one of each kind, so a bill that failed a vote and later passed is shown as having passed. Records come from this bill on Congress.gov and govinfo.gov.