Mr. KAGEN. Mr. Chairman, I am proud to cosponsor legislation that will stop pollution from sewer overflows and preserve our clean water everywhere.

Today, I rise in support of H.R. 569, the Water Quality Investment Act. This important legislation will authorize grants to municipalities and States to reduce combined sewer overflows and sanitary sewer overflows in our Nation’s water supplies.

Everyone should be glad that we are ensuring clean water is a top priority, not just for our families but for our Nation and certainly for every citizen in Wisconsin.

I am pleased that this Congress is addressing this serious problem and this challenge that our Nation’s water and sewerage infrastructure poses. This legislation, along with the other water bills offered later this week, will finally begin to update and repair the outdated and aging systems that have been ignored for far too long.

By adding this critical funding to the Clean Water Act, we will ensure the communities like those in my northeastern Wisconsin district, who would otherwise be unable to upgrade their aging sewer systems, will have the necessary funding to do so.

CSO and SSO overflows in the Great Lakes are a particularly serious impact on all the health of everyone living in our region.

Our environmental stability and the economic prosperity of the region depend upon clean water. I am proud to cosponsor this legislation that will aid communities and municipalities. In eliminating overflow pollution, it will create separate sewage and storm water flows.

I also wish to thank Chairman Oberstar and Chairwoman Johnson for bringing this important legislation to the floor.

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