Dear Friend, There are countless issues where Congress disagrees. Dealing with the water crisis shouldn’t be one.   We are tied together by water. I cannot think of a more pressing function of government than ensuring access to our most precious resource. Our health, economic vitality, and global security depend on it.   Ten years ago, a broad, bipartisan coalition recognized this urgency and mobilized. The Paul Simon Water for the World Act codified water, sanitation, and hygiene (WASH) aid as a pillar of U.S. foreign assistance. It helped more than 70 million people gain access to clean water.   Its bipartisan nature was key to its success. Ted Poe, a conservative Republican from Texas who didn’t like government spending, stepped up. The legislation’s namesake, the late Paul Simon, was relentless in his work to bring members across the political spectrum together. The list of champions is endless because this issue brings people together rather than divides them—and it must if we are going to meet our current challenges.   More than 2 billion people still lack access to clean water. Half of all health care facilities do not have reliable sanitation services. Women across the globe spend 200 million hours a day carrying water to their families, walking about 3.7 miles. Every two minutes, a child under five years old dies from an illness caused by unsafe water and sanitation. Within this decade, forty-five major urban areas will suffer from water shortages. Water contamination is already part of the American experience in cities like Jackson, Mississippi and Flint, Michigan.   Water is the crisis of our lifetime. We need to treat it that way.   That’s why I founded the bipartisan Global Water Security Caucus in Congress with Reps. Darin LaHood, Grace Meng, and the late Jackie Walorski. We work together to secure robust federal funding for WASH initiatives, but perhaps more critically, demand Congress take these issues seriously.   Solving this is entirely in our capacity and that must be a critical part of our mission. As we celebrate the tenth anniversary of the Water for the World Act, and I look at my last several months in elected office, I hope to expand our list of champions. The table is set for progress.