House asked for full GLRI funding

Rep. Dave Joyce, R-Russell Township, is among the Great Lakes members of Congress urging the Chairman and Ranking Member of the House Appropriations for the full $300 million in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Joyce and Reps. Sander Levin, D-Michigan, and Louise Slaughter, D-New York, are leading the 63-member bipartisan effort to ensure funding for the program.

On March 16, President Donald Trump unveiled his proposed Fiscal Year 2018 budget with funding zeroed out for GLRI. Following the unveiling, Joyce called the cuts “hard to comprehend” when the Great Lakes provide drinking water for tens of millions of Americans.

It’s Congress, not the president, that has the power of the purse, however, and so the representatives are urging the House Appropriations Committee for the full $300 million funding in the Fiscal Year 2018 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.

“More than a century of environmental damage has taken a significant toll on the Great Lakes, which the GLRI is helping to correct,” states the letter

sent to the committee’s chair and ranking member. “Since the initiative was launched in 2010, GLRI funds have been used to support over 3,000 restoration projects to improve water quality, protect and restore native habitat, clean up environmentally-impaired Areas of Concern, fight invasive species, and prevent beach closings.”

The representatives argue the initiative is showing “real and measurable results, but there is still a great deal of work to do.”

“The Great Lakes Basin

is vulnerable to various pollutants and invasive species, which threaten the health of the Great Lakes,” the letter states. “For example, in 2014 a toxic algal bloom in Lake Erie forced 400,000 residents in the Toledo area to go without home water service for three days. While the GLRI has prioritized monitoring efforts, which help drinking water treatment plant operators and beach managers minimize health impacts associated with these toxic algal blooms, more must be done to better understand and prevent these algal blooms in the future.”

The Great Lakes provide about 90 percent of the country’s fresh water supply and is an economic driver that supports jobs, commerce, agriculture, transportation, and tourism for millions of people across the country, the representatives said.

“Halting this commitment would reverse years of progress, dramatically reduce the GLRI’s impact, and jeopardize the environmental and economic health of the region,” the letter states.

The other Ohio Reps. who signed the letter are Democrats Marcia Fudge, Tim Ryan, Joyce Beatty and Republicans Bob Gibbs, Jim Renacci, Bill Johnson, Michael Turner and Steve Stivers.