Current Advocacy

• Great Lakes Commission Legislative Priorities for FY 2011
• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
• Asian Carp Prevention

Great Lakes Commission Legislative Priorities for FY 2011

On behalf of its eight member states, the Great Lakes Commission has developed a set of legislative priorities to protect and enhance the quality of our region’s environment and economy. These priorities are presented to Congress at Great Lakes Day 2010, held in Washington DC on February 24, 2010. The Commission’s priorities respond to and will advance the recommendations of the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration Strategy (www.glrc.us). The Commission endorses the recommendations of the Council of Great Lakes Governors to Congress; the recommendations herein complement the governors’ requests.

Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

President Obama’s proposed FY2010 budget includes a Great Lakes Restoration Initiative that will accelerate Great Lakes restoration by investing $475 million to confront some of the most serious threats to the region, including invasive species, nonpoint source pollution and toxic sediments. It represents a significant down payment on a multi-year effort to restore the Great Lakes and help revive the region’s struggling economy. The Great Lakes Commission applauds this effort and calls on Congress to support the inclusion of $475 million in the EPA FY2010 budget for the multiagency initiative.

• U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Endangered Species Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Grants Program
  (Application deadline March 22, 2010 Proposals submitted after March 22, 2010 may be eligible if funding is available.)

• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Fact Sheet
• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: FAQ
• Healing Our Waters®-Great Lakes Coalition Fact Sheet
• Northeast-Midwest Institute Article

• GLC Press Release: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative clears congressional conference committee (10/28/2009)
• Obey Announces Historic $475 Million Effort to Clean Up the Great Lakes (Press Release 10/27/2009)
• FY 2010 Interior Appropriations Conference Report Summary: House and Senate
• Recommendations of the Great Lakes Commission Implementation of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (09/30/2009)
• Letter from 15 Great Lakes organizations to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees (09/25/2009)
• GLC Letter to the House and Senate Appropriations Committees (09/25/2009)
• Letter to Senate Great Lakes Delegation, signed by 15 Great Lakes organizations (06/09/09)
• Great Lakes Restoration Initiative: Talking Points and Key Messages
• House Transportation and Infrastructure Committee Budget Hearing (06/03/2009)
• House Appropriations Committee: Testimony of EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson (05/19/2009)
• Press Release: Region Unites for Congressional Action on Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in President’s Budget (05/14/2009)
• GLC Letter to EPA Administrator (03/26/2009)
• GLC Letter to the Senate and House (03/30/009)
• GLC Press Release (02/26/2009)

Asian Carp Prevention

The Great Lakes region remains under constant threat that Asian carp will migrate through the Illinois River system and past or around the electric dispersal barrier system in the Chicago Sanitary and Ship Canal (CSSC) into Lake Michigan. Recent eDNA evidence of Asian carp has heightened the region's concern. The Commission recogonizes the efforts that have been undertaken to date; however, the threat of an invasion by this voracious feeder demands an even greater response and allocation of resources.

• Great Lakes Commission Resolution on Asian Carp (February 2010)
• Fact sheet: Stopping the Spread of Asian Carp: An Action Agenda for Congress (February 2010)
• Great Lakes Commission letter to Illinois Governor Pat Quinn (December 2009)
• Great Lakes Commission Letter to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (November 2009)
• U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, Chicago District Website
• USACE Dispersal Barrier Efficacy Study - INTERIM I (January 2010)
• Preliminary Feasibility of Ecological Separation of the Mississippi River and the Great Lakes to Prevent the Transfer of Aquatic Invasive Species, Great Lakes Fishery Commission (November 2008)

Past Advocacy Activities