Press Releases

Yesterday, Congressman Bill Huizenga (MI-02) released the following statement in response to the EPA’s report to Congress and the President on the progress of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) for Fiscal Year 2016.

“This report highlights the importance and successful role the GLRI has played in restoring the Great Lakes ecosystem and strengthening the Great Lakes economy,” said House Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chair Bill Huizenga. “Administrator Pruitt’s comments regarding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative should be met with bipartisan praise. I look forward to working with Mr. Pruitt and the growing bipartisan group in Congress to prioritize, strengthen, and defend the Great Lakes.

“As we now understand more than ever, we do not have to choose between the health of our environment and the health of our economy. We can and should have both, said Administrator Pruitt. “I am proud that through the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI)—helping to protect and restore the system that comprises more than 80 percent of the fresh water in the U.S. and Canada—we are fulfilling our mission to restore the health of the water that so many of our communities depend on.”

Pruitt continued, “As this Progress Report to Congress and the President shows, the GLRI is responsible for cleaning up contaminated sites — areas that, once restored, will increase property values and property tax bases. This program is also preventing the introduction of silver and bighead carp, species that could do irreparable harm to the region’s economy and ecology if they enter the lakes. And GLRI is reducing nutrient runoff to our most sensitive waterways, such as Lake Erie, Saginaw Bay, and Green Bay. The GLRI is protecting public health in the Great Lakes more than any other coordinated interagency effort in U.S. history, and helping to ensure that our children and their children live in safer, healthier communities.”

The House and Senate Great Lakes Task Forces are bipartisan working groups within the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions that cooperate to enhance the economic and environmental health of the Great Lakes. Founded in the mid-1980s, the Great Lakes Task Forces work together to advocate for policies and programs that enhance our unique natural resource—the Great Lakes.

The FY 2016 report on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is available here.