The Northeast-Midwest Institute will be holding a comprehensive orientation briefing for Congressional staff on critical federal Great Lakes issues on Friday, March 29 from 12 pm – 3 pm in Rayburn 2060.
This comprehensive orientation briefing will focus on providing new and existing Congressional staff a broad overview of the key issues impacting the Great Lakes. Because of the large amount of content that might be presented at such an event, we are looking to hold several orientation briefings over the spring that will touch upon economic and infrastructure needs in the region.
What: Great Lakes Orientation for Congressional Staff
When: 12:00 PM ? 3:00 PM, Friday, March 29, 2019
Where: Rayburn 2060
Who: Key Great Lakes federal, state, and NGO stakeholders from across the region
RSVP: Matt McKenna, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program mmckenna@nemw.org
I will be sharing a more detailed agenda listing panelists for each of the five sessions in the near future, but the following content will be discussed:
- Governance Structures in the Great Lakes
- Who’s who in the Great Lakes
- Roles of key federal agencies
- Shared water resource management…who’s in charge of this extremely large bi-national natural resource?
- The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI)
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- A brief history of the GLRI.
- The Great Lakes Interagency Task Force and the GLRI Action Plan.
- Economic benefits of the GLRI
- Invasive Species in the Great Lakes
- Asian carp
- Invasive Species currently in the Great Lakes (i.e. zebra mussels and sea lamprey)
- Harmful Algal Blooms (HABs) in the Great Lakes
- What’s causing HABs.
- Conservation efforts to limit nutrient runoff into the Great Lakes.
- The Largest HAB in the Great Lakes, western Lake Erie.
- The Great Lakes, the Nation’s fourth coast
- Climate change
- Resiliency and sustainability
The Northeast-Midwest Institute is a nonprofit, nonpartisan research, education, and policy organization based in the nation’s capital. Our mission is to promote economic vitality, environmental quality, and regional equity for the 18 Northeastern and Midwestern states: Connecticut, Delaware, Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Michigan, Minnesota, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and Wisconsin. The Great Lakes orientation program is possible through the generous support of the Fred A. and Barbara M. Erb Family Foundation and the Charles Stewart Mott Foundation.