Great Lakes, Tariffs, and Trade

Floor Speech

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Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, as co-chair of the House Great Lakes Task Force, I rise today to speak on behalf of our Great Lakes region.

My part of it is the Ninth District of Ohio that stretches all the way from Bryan, Ohio, all the way across the northern part of Ohio through Toledo, all the way to Sandusky and down to Fremont, Ohio, passing through places like Rossford, Perrysburg, Defiance, Ohio, and so many other beautiful places.

Our hardworking families depend on the Great Lakes not just for their livelihoods but for our way of life. They are the largest freshwater body on the face of the Earth, and we take the responsibility for tending that seriously.

The Great Lakes form the beating heart of our regional economy. They support hundreds of thousands of jobs, from the auto and steel industries, manufacturing to shipping, farming to fishing, and tourism to technology.

Our freshwater coast is a national treasure, and it is also a global economic engine, the third largest economy in the world that we share with Canada. We work on this together. We have from the beginning.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative--or some people call it the GLRI--has been a bipartisan lifeline and a vital investment that has brought over $3.7 billion to our complex ecosystem to restore our wetlands, to clean up toxic waste in hotspots, and to protect our fresh drinking water. It is complex with lots of industry, lots of agriculture, lots of people, and lots of freshwater.

We must fully fund the GLRI. Every dollar brings back four to our economy, and that just makes common sense.

Let me be clear to this new administration: Keep your hands off our lakes. We will not stand by while shortsighted proposals gut the programs that have protected our water, our health, and our jobs. I would urge the President, while he is in Michigan, to go visit Flint, Michigan, and look at what we have to do to restore enterprise and freshwater across our region.

Mr. Speaker, currently, our Great Lakes economy is being choked by reckless tariffs and inside-out trade policies that hit us hard, including the district I represent in northwest Ohio. It hits our pocketbooks and it hits the balance sheets of thousands of companies.

Take a drive through the Port of Toledo. You will see mountains of aluminum and steel stockpiled, stalled, waiting. Waiting for what? Our workers and small businesses are paying the price for a trade war that didn't need to start, and we certainly can't win as a joint economy.

Our region, the Great Lakes region, we share with Canada. What is all of this commotion for? Tariffs on Canada, our friend--I underline that--and ally, mind you--the Trump tariffs have inflated costs across our industries, including auto manufacturing, crushing competitiveness in an industry that has long been the pride of northern Ohio and for which we have struggled for 40 years to reinvest in.

In Sandusky, in Perrysburg, in Warren, Michigan, in Windsor, Ontario, and across the industrial belt, plants are being squeezed or idled, shifts are being cut, and paychecks are being threatened.

It doesn't stop there. Tariffs on Canadian lumber, potash, and energy have disrupted supply chains our region relies on. It is our life beat.

Construction costs are soaring. Eight percent for a mortgage, who can afford that? Farmers can't access the nutrients they need, and they are in the planting mode right now. The tractors are going into the fields.

As mortgage interest rates rise, we need Canadian lumber. The cost of housing is through the roof. Energy bills climb higher and higher. This is not economic patriotism. This isn't putting America first. It is self-inflicted damage. Somebody doesn't understand where these lakes exist. We share them with Canada.

Trump tariffs on the U.S. and Canada put our workers not first but put them last. Rising prices for consumers are hitting us hard across the board.

Let's not forget tourism, one of our region's most vital and underestimated economic engines. Lake Erie supports billions of dollars of recreational boating and sports fishing, along with a boating industry second to none. We share it with Canada. Cedar Fair, with Cedar Point, the roller coaster capital of the world, draws millions, including from Canada, and they are boycotting our facilities right now. Tourism generates billions.

I ask the President, please, while he is in Michigan, to review how damaging his tariffs are to our Great Lakes nation.

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