Rep. Joyce Leads Bipartisan Group of Lawmakers Urging Funding for Great Lakes

Press Release

Today, Rep. Dave Joyce led a bipartisan group of 51 House lawmakers to urge a key House committee to provide sustained funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). In a letter to the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations panel with jurisdiction over environmental programs, the Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, the lawmakers called for $300 million in 2016 for GLRI. Rep. Dave Joyce, along with Reps. Sander Levin (D-MI) and Louise Slaughter (D-NY), spearheaded the letter. A copy of the letter is below.

The GLRI is a six-year-old effort to protect, restore and maintain the Great Lakes ecosystem. The inter-agency program provides funding to address vital environmental issues in the Great Lakes, such as cleaning up contaminated sediments, reducing polluted runoff, mitigating habitat degradation and loss, and addressing invasive species such as the Asian carp. The program has invested $1.9 billion in Great Lakes restoration over the last five years.

"The Great Lakes are one of our nation's greatest treasures, so it's good to see a record number of my colleagues are understanding how important it is that we preserve and protect them" Rep. Joyce said. "GLRI will help keep and create jobs, stop the spread of Asian Carp and ensure safe drinking water. Now that support is clearly growing across state and party lines - we aren't going to take our foot off the gas."

In its budget submission to Congress in February, the Obama Administration requested $250 million in 2016 for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to continue the restoration work -- a 17 percent reduction from the current funding level of $300 million.

In January, Rep. Joyce introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2015, which would formally authorize the GLRI at $300 million annually from Fiscal Year 2016 to Fiscal Year 2020.

The GLRI casts a broad net to collect the best ideas from local units of government, environmental organization, citizens groups, and universities. The program provides federal resources to fund local solutions that respond to local restoration priorities. The GLRI grants are competitively awarded. To date, the program has been used to fund more than 2,000 projects nationwide.

GLRI funds played a crucial role in the cleanup of 630,000 cubic yards of contaminated sediment that contained 25,000 pounds of hazardous compounds from the Ashtabula River.

Because of these efforts, water quality improved and the river channel was deepened, making the Ashtabula River once again suitable for maritime commerce, fishing, and recreational boating. As a result, in September of 2014 Ashtabula River was taken off the Environmental Protection Agency's list of designated "Areas of Concern".

GLRI funds have no helped delist 5 five of these areas in recent years, a far cry from the 25 years before these programs started, when only one Area was cleaned up and delisted.

Continued bipartisan support for the GLRI reflects a broad recognition that the Great Lakes are both a natural treasure and a vital economic asset the Great Lakes states.

As the largest surface freshwater system in the world, they are home to more than 3,500 species of plants and animals. The Great Lakes are a unique and vital ecosystem, as well as an important economic engine throughout the entire Great Lakes region. The Great Lakes basin supports a diverse range of industries and small businesses, supporting an estimated 1.5 million American jobs and generating $62 billion in wages per year. More than 30 million Americans live within the Great Lakes basin and rely on the Great Lakes as their source of safe drinking water, transportation, and recreation.

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