Congressional Members Call For More Funding For Great Lakes

LANSING – A bipartisan group of U.S. House members, led by Michigan members, has called for $300 million to be added to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in the 2014 federal budget.

A total of 35 U.S. House members from other Great Lakes states, and even Florida, signed a letter to the chamber’s Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, saying the initiative is already helping with restoration projects across the region.

U.S. Rep. Sander Levin (D-Royal Oak), U.S. Rep. John Dingell (D-Dearborn) and U.S. Rep. Dan Benishek (R-Crystal Falls) are the first signatories on the letter that includes the other Michigan Democrats – U.S. Rep. John Conyers of Detroit, U.S. Rep. Gary Peters of Bloomfield Township and U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee of Flint. No other Michigan Republican signed the letter.

The initiative has already provided communities in Michigan with $163 million in federal funding to help develop projects to help clean and protect the lakes.

The letter says the Great Lakes are the source of drinking water for 30 million residents, and support $62 billion in wages for an estimated 1.5 million jobs.

In closing, the letter urged the committee to act saying the restoration program is a “vital investment” in the economic and ecological health of the lakes.

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