{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://stansbury.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-stansbury-highlights-water-crisis-indigenous-communities", "Congresswoman Stansbury Highlights Water Crisis in Indigenous Communities", "2021-11-05", "2021", "2021-11", "Democrat", "House", "NM", "Melanie A. Stansbury", "S001218", "stansbury.house.gov", "stansbury", "https://stansbury.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "VIDEO: Congresswoman Stansbury Highlights Water Crisis in To'Hajiilee, Indigenous Communities\n\nWASHINGTON \u2014 Yesterday, U.S. Representative Melanie Stansbury (N.M.-01) called attention to the lack of water access in Indigenous communities during a hearing before the Subcommittee on Water, Oceans, and Wildlife. Rep. Stansbury also advanced legislation she cosponsors to affirm the fundamental right to water access by Indigenous communities and extend authorization for river ecosystem recovery initiatives.\n\nDuring the hearing, Rep. Stansbury and the subcommittee heard witness testimony from three panels on four pieces of legislation that affirms the federal government\u2019s responsibility to ensure water access for Indigenous communities, establish a satellite-based evapotranspiration data program, extend endangered fish recovery programs and provide a conservation plan for saline lakes in the West.\n\n\u201cNearly a third of households in Indigenous communities across the U.S. do not have reliable access to water and sanitation services\u2026whose health, education, economic development, and other basic household needs are negatively impacted by this basic quality of life and human rights issue.\u201d Rep. Stansbury said during her opening statement. \u201cThis is especially urgent in To\u2019Hajiilee, which is a chapter of the Navajo Nation in my district in New Mexico. It is an urgent situation: an entire community does not have access to safe, drinking water. A number of the families that live in To\u2019Hajiilee are having to haul water from Albuquerque and elsewhere.\u201d\n\nRep. Stansbury asked Bidtah Becker, Associate Attorney for the Navajo Tribal Utility Authority and a member of the witness panel, to describe the experience of hauling water in Indigenous communities, especially To\u2019Hajiilee.\n\n\u201cI think what a lot of people don't realize is that hauling water is the single most expensive form of water one can obtain and utilize, and we're already talking about families who suffer some of the highest rates of poverty in the country,\u201d Becker responded. \u201cOne of the stories I tell is that on the weekends, when people come into the border towns to do the grocery store shopping to meet basic needs or they do their laundry, they wash their car. The lines to the bathrooms will be very long because it's the only time you have to go to a flushable bathroom and wash your hands with running water.\u201d\n\n\u201cWater is a basic human right, and it's crucial to the economic well-being, the health, and just the general well-being of people in our communities,\u201d Rep. Stansbury affirmed.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:30:49Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://stansbury.house.gov/media/press-releases/congresswoman-stansbury-highlights-water-crisis-indigenous-communities"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.9426310900598764, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}