II

107TH CONGRESS

1ST SESSION S. 1168

To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide for the establishment

of a Clean Water for the Americas Partnership within the United States

Agency for International Development.

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

JULY 12, 2001

Mr. CHAFEE (for himself, Mr. DEWINE, Mr. LEAHY, and Mrs. FEINSTEIN)

introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the

Committee on Foreign Relations

A BILL

To amend the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961 to provide

for the establishment of a Clean Water for the Americas

Partnership within the United States Agency for International Development.

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled,

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Clean Water for the

5 Americas Partnership Act of 2001’’.

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

7 Congress finds that—
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1 (1) it is in United States national interests to

2 foster public and environmental health among neigh3 boring countries;

4 (2) neither disease nor pollution respects inter5 national borders;

6 (3) improving the lives of people abroad is an

7 essential element in curbing illegal immigration into

8 the United States;

9 (4) the health and productivity of the world’s

10 natural resources affects all the world’s people, in11 cluding the American people;

12 (5) maintaining good relations with nations of

13 Latin America and the Caribbean region promotes

14 United States national security interests in many

15 ways; and

16 (6) the United States environmental technology

17 industry is a world leader, and offers great potential

18 economic growth here in the United States, while at

19 the same time fostering improved environmental pro20 tection abroad.

21 SEC. 3. APPROPRIATE CONGRESSIONAL COMMITTEES DE22 FINED.

23 In this Act, the term ‘‘appropriate congressional com24 mittees’’ means the Committee on Appropriations and the

25 Committee on Foreign Relations of the Senate and the
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1 Committee on Appropriations and the Committee on

2 International Relations of the House of Representatives.

3 SEC. 4. AMENDMENT OF THE FOREIGN ASSISTANCE ACT OF

4 1961.

5 (a) IN GENERAL.—Part I of the Foreign Assistance

6 Act of 1961 (22 U.S.C. 2151 et seq.) is amended by add7 ing at the end the following new chapter:

8 ‘‘CHAPTER 13—CLEAN WATER FOR THE

9 AMERICAS PARTNERSHIP

10 ‘‘SEC. 500. DEFINITIONS.

11 ‘‘In this chapter:

12 ‘‘(1) JOINT PROJECT.—The term ‘joint project’

13 means a project between a United States association

14 or nonprofit entity and a Latin American or Carib15 bean association or nonprofit entity.

16 ‘‘(2) LATIN AMERICAN OR CARIBBEAN ASSOCIA17 TION.—The term ‘Latin American or Caribbean as18 sociation’ means an organization other than a

19 United States association—

20 ‘‘(A) that would be exempt from taxation

21 under section 501(a) of the Internal Revenue

22 Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 510(a)) as a business

23 league described in section 501(c)(6) of such

24 Code (26 U.S.C. 501(c)(6)) if the association

25 were subject to that Code; and
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1 ‘‘(B) a majority of the members of which

2 are nationals of any country in the region.

3 ‘‘(3) LATIN AMERICAN OR CARIBBEAN NON4 PROFIT ENTITY.—The term ‘Latin American or Car5 ibbean nonprofit entity’ includes any institution of

6 higher education, any private nonprofit entity in7 volved in international education activities, or any

8 research institute or other research organization,

9 based in the region.

10 ‘‘(4) PRESIDENT.—The term ‘President’ means

11 the President, acting through the Administrator of

12 the agency primarily responsible for carrying out

13 this part.

14 ‘‘(5) REGION.—The term ‘region’ refers to the

15 region comprised of the member countries of the Or16 ganization of American States (other than the

17 United States and Canada).

18 ‘‘(6) UNITED STATES ASSOCIATION.—The term

19 ‘United States association’ means a business league

20 described in section 501(c)(6) of the Internal Rev21 enue Code of 1986 (26 U.S.C. 501(c)(6)), and ex22 empt from taxation under section 501(a) of such

23 Code (26 U.S.C. 501(a)).

24 ‘‘(7) UNITED STATES NONPROFIT ENTITY.—

25 The term ‘United States nonprofit entity’ includes
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1 any institution of higher education (as defined in

2 section 101(a) of the Higher Education Act of 1965

3 (20 U.S.C. 1001(a)), any private nonprofit entity in4 volved in international education activities, or any

5 research institute or other research organization,

6 based in the United States.

7 ‘‘SEC. 500A. ESTABLISHMENT OF PROGRAM.

8 ‘‘The President is authorized to establish a program

9 within the agency primarily responsible for carrying out

10 this part which shall be known as the ‘Clean Water for

11 the Americas Partnership’. In carrying out the program

12 established under this section, the President may utilize

13 personnel of the Department of State, the Department of

14 Commerce, and the Environmental Protection Agency as

15 well as personnel employed by the agency primarily re16 sponsible for administering this part.

17 ‘‘SEC. 500B. ENVIRONMENTAL ASSESSMENT.

18 ‘‘The President is authorized to conduct a com19 prehensive assessment of the environmental problems in

20 the region to determine—

21 ‘‘(1) which environmental problems threaten

22 human health the most, particularly the health of

23 the urban poor, which environmental problems are

24 most threatening, in the long-term, to the region’s
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1 natural resources, and which countries have the

2 most pressing environmental problems; and

3 ‘‘(2) whether and to what extent there is a mar4 ket for United States environmental technology,

5 practices, knowledge, and innovations in the region.

6 ‘‘SEC. 500C. ESTABLISHMENT OF TECHNOLOGY AMERICA

7 CENTERS.

8 ‘‘(a) AUTHORITY TO ESTABLISH.—The President, in

9 consultation with the Director General of the United

10 States and Foreign Commercial Service of the Department

11 of Commerce, is authorized to establish Technology Amer12 ica Centers (TEAMs) in the region to serve the entire re13 gion and, where appropriate, to establish TEAMs in urban

14 areas of the region to focus on urban environmental prob15 lems.

16 ‘‘(b) FUNCTIONS.—The TEAMs would link United

17 States private sector environmental technology firms with

18 local partners, both public and private, by providing logis19 tic and information support to United States firms seeking

20 to find local partners and opportunities for environmental

21 projects. TEAMs should emphasize assisting small busi22 nesses.

23 ‘‘(c) LOCATION.—In determining whether to locate a

24 TEAM in a country, the President, in consultation with

25 the Director General of the United States and Foreign
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1 Commercial Service of the Department of Commerce, shall

2 take into account the country’s need for logistic and infor3 mational support and the opportunities presented for

4 United States firms in the country. A TEAM may be lo5 cated in a country without regard to whether a mission

6 of the United States Agency for International Develop7 ment is established in that country.

8 ‘‘SEC. 500D. PROMOTION OF WATER QUALITY, WATER

9 TREATMENT SYSTEMS, AND ENERGY EFFI10 CIENCY.

11 ‘‘Subject to the availability of appropriations, the

12 President is authorized to provide matching grants to

13 United States associations and United States nonprofit

14 entities for the purpose of promoting water quality, water

15 treatment systems, and energy efficiency in the region.

16 The grants shall be used to support joint projects, includ17 ing professional exchanges, academic fellowships, training

18 programs in the United States or in the region, coopera19 tion in regulatory review, development of training mate20 rials, the establishment and development in the region of

21 local chapters of the associations or nonprofit entities, and

22 the development of online exchanges.

23 ‘‘SEC. 500E. GRANTS FOR PREFEASIBILITY STUDIES WITHIN

24 A DESIGNATED SUBREGION.

25 ‘‘(a) GRANT AUTHORITY.—
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1 ‘‘(1) IN GENERAL.—Subject to the availability

2 of appropriations, the President is authorized to

3 make grants through the agency primarily respon4 sible for carrying out this part for prefeasibility

5 studies for water projects in any country within a

6 single subregion or in a single country designated

7 under paragraph (2).

8 ‘‘(2) DESIGNATION OF SUBREGION.—The Presi9 dent shall designate in advance a single subregion or

10 a single country for purposes of paragraph (1).

11 ‘‘(b) MATCHING REQUIREMENT.—The President may

12 not make any grant under this section unless there are

13 made available non-Federal contributions in an amount

14 equal to not less than $20 for every $80 of Federal funds

15 provided under the grant.

16 ‘‘(c) LIMITATION PER SINGLE PROJECT.—With re17 spect to any single project, grant funds under this section

18 shall be available only for the prefeasibility portion of that

19 project.

20 ‘‘(d) DEFINITIONS.—In this section:

21 ‘‘(1) PREFEASIBILITY.—The term ‘prefeasi22 bility’ means, with respect to a project, not more

23 than 25 percent of the design phase of the project.

24 ‘‘(2) SUBREGION.—The term ‘subregion’ means

25 an area within the region and includes areas such as
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1 Central America, the Andean region, and the South2 ern cone.

3 ‘‘SEC. 500F. CLEAN WATER TECHNICAL ASSISTANCE COM4 MITTEE.

5 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—The President is authorized to

6 establish a Clean Water Technical Assistance Committee

7 (in this section referred to as the ‘Committee’) to provide

8 technical support and training services for individual

9 water projects.

10 ‘‘(b) COMPOSITION.—The Committee shall consist of

11 international investors, lenders, water service providers,

12 suppliers, advisers, and others with a direct interest in ac13 celerating development of water projects in the region.

14 ‘‘(c) FUNCTIONS.—Members of the Committee shall

15 act as field advisers and may form specialized working

16 groups to provide in-country training and technical assist17 ance, and shall serve as a source of technical support to

18 resolve barriers to project development.

19 ‘‘(d) NONAPPLICABILITY OF FEDERAL ADVISORY

20 COMMITTEE ACT.—The Federal Advisory Committee Act

21 (5 U.S.C. App.) shall not apply to the Committee.

22 ‘‘SEC. 500G. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

23 ‘‘(a) IN GENERAL.—There are authorized to be ap24 propriated to the President $10,000,000 for each of the
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1 fiscal years 2002, 2003, and 2004 to carry out this chap2 ter.

3 ‘‘(b) AVAILABILITY OF FUNDS.—Funds appropriated

4 pursuant to subsection (a) are authorized to remain avail5 able until expended.’’.

6 (b) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendment made by

7 subsection (a) shall take effect October 1, 2001.

8 SEC. 5. REPORT.

9 Two years after the date of enactment of this Act,

10 the President shall submit a report to the appropriate con11 gressional committees containing—

12 (1) an assessment of the progress made in car13 rying out the program established under chapter 13

14 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, as

15 added by section 4 of this Act; and

16 (2) any recommendations for the enactment of

17 legislation to make changes in the program estab18 lished under chapter 13 of part I of the Foreign As19 sistance Act of 1961, as added by section 4 of this

20 Act, for fiscal year 2004.

21 SEC. 6. TERMINATION DATE.

22 (a) IN GENERAL.—Except as provided in subsection

23 (b), chapter 13 of part I of the Foreign Assistance Act

24 of 1961, as added by section 4, is repealed on the date
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1 that is 3 years after the date of establishment of the pro2 gram described in section 500A of that Act, as so added.

3 (b) EXCEPTION.—In lieu of the date of repeal speci4 fied in subsection (a), the repeal required by that sub5 section shall take effect five years after the date of estab6 lishment of the program described in section 500A of that

7 Act, as so added, if, prior to the date of repeal specified

8 in subsection (a), the Administrator of the United States

9 Agency for International Development determines and cer10 tifies to the appropriate congressional committees that it

11 would be in the national interest of the United States to

12 continue the program described in such section 500A for

13 an additional 2-year period.

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