LEGISLATIVE UPDATES
- Appropriations and Budget
- Updated numbers for Great Lakes program funding for FY2012 through the FY2015 request are available.
- The Great Lakes Task Forces have circulated letters on the House and Senate side supporting regionally-important programs, including appropriations committee-specific letters, navigation, and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. NEMWI will distribute links to the finalized letters once sent (due dates in late March/early April)
- Water Resources Conference Committee
- Work on the Conference Committee continues and now anticipating end of April for conference report.
- The Conference Committee includes Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair, Rep. Candice Miller (MI-10), as well as delegation member, Rep. Rick Nolan (MN-08)
- NEMWI released a summary comparison of the Senate and House bills
- Sleeping Bear Dunes Wilderness Bill Becomes Law
- Bills sponsored by Senate Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair Sen. Carl Levin (MI) and Member Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) ( 23) and by House Great Lakes Task Force Member Rep. Dan Benishek (MI-01) (H.R. 163) were signed into law on March 14, 2014.
- Places 32,557 acres into wilderness protection while maintaining access to beaches and roads and preserving tribal and property rights. Additionally, the state maintains control of hunting and fishing within the national lakeshore.
EVENTS
Great Lakes Congressional Breakfast
On Thursday, March 6, the Northeast-Midwest Institute and the Great Lakes Commission co-hosted the annual Great Lakes Congressional Breakfast. Members in attendance included Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Sens. Carl Levin (MI) and Mark Kirk (IL) and Rep. Sean Duffy (WI-07); Great Lakes Task Force Members Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI), and Reps. Dan Benishek (MI-01), David Joyce (OH-14), Jim Renacci (OH-16), and Mike Quigley (IL-05); and Great Lakes Delegation Members Sens. Tammy Baldwin (WI) and Ron Johnson (WI). The breakfast provides an opportunity for Great Lakes regional leaders, stakeholders, Congressional Members, and their staff, numbering over 100 collectively this year, to come together to celebrate the Great Lakes. At this year’s event, the breakfast honored the long, successful career of Great Lakes Senate Task Force Co-Chair, Senator Carl Levin (MI), who will be retiring at the end of 2014. Sen. Levin’s bipartisan co-chair, Sen. Mark Kirk (IL), and fellow Michigan Member Sen. Debbie Stabenow (MI) spoke on Sen. Levin’s history of defending and supporting the Great Lakes. In his remarks, Sen. Levin noted that the lakes unite the region, affecting all residents in some way. As part of the honor, Sen. Levin received a photo of the Sleeping Bear Dunes, a protected wilderness area which recently was expanded by Congressional vote.
REPORTS/LETTERS
House sends letter to appropriators supporting restoration of Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Funding
House Great Lakes leaders, including Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Reps. John Dingell (MI-12) and Louise Slaughter (NY-25); Members Reps. Sandy Levin (MI-09), Dave Joyce (OH-14), as well as Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition Co-Chair Rep. Mike Kelly (PA-03), and 41 other members, sent a letter to the House Appropriations Committee, requesting restored FY2015 funding at $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
FY2015 Great Lakes Appropriations Request Letters
House and Senate Great Lakes Task Force leaders are circulating letters to support Great Lakes programs under the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, U.S. Department of Transportation, the State Department, as well as the Department of Energy. Final copies of all appropriation letters will be published through the NEMWI’s Weekly Update and Hill Happenings.
Senate sends letter to US Army Corps of Engineers, asking questions about next steps for GLMRIS
Eleven Great Lakes Senators, led by Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair Sen. Carl Levin (MI) and Delegation Member Sen. Rob Portman (OH), sent a letter on March 14, 2014, to Assistant Secretary Jo-Ellen Darcy, asking questions about the Corps’ plans for the Great Lakes-Mississippi River Interbasin Study Report. Questions included what the Corps plans to do with the remaining FY2014 funding for GLMRIS, what steps and partners would be needed to implement the non-structural options identified in Alternative 2 of the GLMRIS report, whether the Corps will undertake an independent peer review of the GLMRIS report, needs to fully study the Brandon Road option, among others. The Corps accepted public comment on the GLMRIS report through March 31.
ADMINISTRATION
The President’s FY2015 Budget request arrived to Congress on March 4, 2014. The NEMWI hosted webinars on the regional impacts of the request for State offices, Congressional Coalition staff, and Regional stakeholders. The NEMWI published its findings in a Note to the Coalition. Overall, the region would see some gains in water resources, infrastructure, climate resilience, and development; however, requested decreases in programs such as the Clean Water State Revolving Fund and the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program would disproportionately impact the Northeast-Midwest region. NEMWI will track the appropriations process and provide updates as the Chambers present their spending bills.
THE GREAT LAKES “FUNNY” – just awesome
Love, actually – or how I learned to survive this Chicago winter