[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 217 (Sunday, December 20, 2020)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7864-S7866]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GREAT LAKES RESTORATION INITIATIVE ACT OF 2019
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, I am on the floor tonight to join my
colleague Senator Stabenow of Michigan to ask our colleagues to support
legislation that has to do with the Great Lakes. It is called the Great
Lakes Restoration Initiative. We are asking to reauthorize that
legislation.
This is one of those public-private partnerships that work. It is not
only public, like Federal public, and private; it is Federal, State,
local, and private individuals coming together to figure out how to
keep our Great Lakes the amazing treasure that they are.
I represent Lake Erie. It is on the north coast of Ohio. It is the
most shallow and also the most fertile of the Great Lakes. It has
incredible fishing. There is a gigantic, $7 billion fishing industry in
the Great Lakes. A lot of it is recreational fishing--$7 billion. It is
being threatened right now, really, by a few different things. One is
these Asian carp, so-called ``bighead carp,'' that are coming up into
the lake. We are doing all we can to keep them out, but this funding,
the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, focuses on that issue to keep
the carp from ruining Lake Erie as they have ruined other
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bodies of water for recreational and commercial fishing.
Second, we have to deal with our toxic algae blooms. You have
probably heard about this. We have these blooms that are increasingly
forming in Lake Erie, particularly in the western basin of the Toledo
area. What they do is they keep people from being able to use the lake.
You don't want to swim in it. By the way, you don't even want your dog
to swim in it because the dogs can actually be injured by this. You
don't want to fish in it, of course, and you really can't.
I have gone fishing in the Great Lakes every year for the past many
years. I love the Great Lakes. Part of my childhood was on the Great
Lakes. When I was a little kid, with my dad, I went fishing on the
Great Lakes. You really can't fish when the algae blooms come in
because they are so thick, you literally can't get a lure or bait
through the algae blooms, and your boat has a tough time getting
through them.
This is a serious issue. At one point, it got so serious in the
western basin that it actually affected the water supply for the city
of Toledo. So several years ago, we had to stop the city water in
Toledo. I remember going there, with my pickup truck full of bottles of
water, to help hand out water because people--particularly moms with
babies--couldn't use the water. They were told: Don't allow your babies
to have formula made from the water in the faucet because it is too
dangerous, too toxic, because these algae blooms had gotten into the
water system.
That is how scary this is if we don't ensure that we are taking
efforts at every level--State, local, in the private sector, and at the
Federal. Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes now provide drinking water
for 40 million people. You want to be sure that treasure continues, not
just for recreation and fishing and swimming and so on but also for the
water supply for so many Americans.
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a downpayment, really, to
ensure that we can deal with these invasive species like the Asian carp
and others. It is to ensure that we can deal with the toxic algae
blooms and the erosion that is occurring as the water level has gone up
and also some pollution issues that remain in Lake Erie and in all the
Great Lakes.
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative works. I have been to about 10
of these sights all around Ohio, and I have gone often with people from
the private sector and the local community and sometimes the State
government, and we talk about how, again, this is a model partnership.
As an example, I was at a farm in northwest Ohio, where, instead of
telling them, ``Hey, you have to stop farming because you are putting
nitrogen and phosphorus into the creek that goes by your farm, and that
is going into the Maumee River, and that is going into Lake Erie and
causing these algae blooms to grow,'' I asked, ``Hey, how can we work
with you as a farmer to try to reduce your runoff?''
We have had great success in that, but there is some expense in it.
Often, you have to provide for filters and pumps and so on to keep this
from going into the water supply and dealing with these upstream issues
with regard to algae blooms and phosphorus nitrogen.
So I am pleased to say that, as of tonight, it appears that we have
passed this on both sides of the Chamber through a so-called hotline.
We had to work with some of our colleagues to resolve some remaining
questions that they had for which we had answers because this is a
program that works, and I have seen it work.
I am really pleased to have partnered with Senator Stabenow. We are
cochairs of the Great Lakes Task Force. She is the Democratic cochair,
and I am the Republican cochair, and tonight I have partnered with her
on this legislation. I thank her for her friendship, her work on this
issue, and her passion for the Great Lakes.
I would like, if I could, to now turn to Senator Stabenow.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Michigan.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, it is always wonderful to work with my
friend and colleague from Ohio, and certainly we share a tremendous
partnership and passion about our Great Lakes.
For us in Michigan, we are a peninsula. We are surrounded by the
Great Lakes, and we really believe it is about our way of life. My
friend has talked about the fishing industry and the boating industry.
There are 40 million people who get their drinking water from the Great
Lakes Basin. We have more lighthouses all around Michigan, actually,
than any other shoreline has in the country. We say we have the ocean
without the salt, and it is very much in our DNA for us in Michigan.
As the Senator from Ohio indicated, the Great Lakes Restoration
Initiative focuses on a number of things that deal with water quality,
stopping the spread of Asian carp and other invasive species, and
restoring the shoreline from any future contaminations.
I have to say, as a personal point of pride, in 2010, I authored the
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative as a member of the Senate Committee
on the Budget, and since that time, we have funded 5,449 different
projects throughout the entire region of the Great Lakes, including 880
projects in Michigan. And we have seen tangible results.
As Senator Portman has indicated, this is a partnership, public-
private. It is with local communities. It is with State governments. It
is the Federal Government.
We, in Michigan, have passed four areas of concern that have been
labeled because of the seriousness of what was happening to the water
and the water quality. They have now been removed from those areas of
concern, where the communities worked together using Great Lakes
Restoration funding and working with the communities, and they have
been delisted, which is a good thing. That means things have improved.
You can fish again. You can swim again. You can enjoy the water again.
And so we are seeing tremendous, tangible results from what we have
been able to do together.
And it is also important to note that for every $1 we put into
investment through this important program, it produces $3 in economic
return.
So it is fiscally responsible. It is responsible stewardship for all
of us in protecting the fresh waters of our country. What we are doing
in this legislation, basically, would allow us, over the next 5 years,
to raise the authorization level back up to where it started in 2010.
It has been up and down, and up and down, and up and down, and this
would allow us to be able, within the next 5 years, to get that
authorization back up to where it was. So we do have the support of the
body.
Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent
that the Committee on Environment and Public Works be discharged from
further consideration of H.R. 4031 and the Senate proceed to its
immediate consideration.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The clerk will report the bill by title.
The bill clerk read as follows:
A bill (H.R. 4031) to amend the Federal Water Pollution
Control Act to reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration
Initiative, and for other purposes.
There being no objection, the committee was discharged and the Senate
proceeded to consider the bill.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be
considered read a third time and passed and that the motion to
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
The bill (H.R. 4031) was ordered to be engrossed for a third reading,
was read the third time, and passed.
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, thank you very much. Let me say again
what a pleasure it is to work with my friend from Ohio.
Mr. PORTMAN. Mr. President, one other point from Senator Stabenow and
myself, and that is that we want to congratulate and thank our
colleagues in the House for working with us on this Great Lakes
Restoration Initiative and, in particular, the two cochairs in the
House from the Great Lakes Task Force and the two coauthors of the
Great Lakes Restoration Initiative legislation.
That would be Representative Marcy Kaptur of Ohio and Representative
David Joyce from Ohio. We would like to thank them for their good work
and
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congratulate them on tonight's passage as well
Coronavirus
Mr. STABENOW. Mr. President, I want to take one other moment just to
also speak and thank everybody that is involved at this point in
getting us to where we are on this very important survival package.
I have never felt this was a COVID stimulus. It is about helping
people survive over the next several months, whether that is making
sure they have a roof over their head and food on the table, can pay
the bills, keep the heat on. In places like North Dakota and places
like Ohio, it is going to get pretty cold this winter. Our small
businesses, our farmers, our schools that need help to be able to
succeed, all the support we need to provide for vaccine distribution
and healthcare, and all of the other areas--this has been a tough
negotiation.
I do want to say, on a couple of points where I have been deeply
involved, I want to thank the Presiding Officer for his support and
help on our nutrition and agriculture pieces. We have come together in
a very important step. It is going to allow more people to get help to
feed their families over the next several months--no small thing.
We have a hunger crisis in our country. We have people who have
donated to the food bank, worked for the food bank, and are now sitting
for hours in cars, waiting to drive up and get a box of food, in the
United States of America.
And so what we are doing as part of this package is going to be
significant to help people be able to purchase food in the grocery
store, as well as to get help in other ways--to help our seniors with
Meals on Wheels, to help our children who aren't able to eat in school
right now, and our college students who don't have the opportunity to
be on campus and get support.
So we have very significant food access and nutrition, very positive
efforts in this legislation. And for our farmers, as well, across the
country, there is significant support, as well as help in our food
chain and supply chain areas, where we have all been concerned as we
have watched those involved in the supply chain lose their markets in
restaurants and so on but not have the support and the capacity to take
that milk or take those other commodities and be able to move them over
and package them differently for consumers to go to the food bank. We
make some headway in supporting that, as well, in this legislation.
So I want to thank my colleagues. This is really the last negotiation
that Senator Roberts and I have led, as he retires this year. And it
has been, as I have said before, a great pleasure to work with him and
to be able to achieve this effort--bipartisan effort.
The one thank-you I just want to give is in a whole other area that
has been a passion of mine that I have been proud to lead with a
colleague from Missouri, Senator Roy Blunt. We have very significant
support, as well, for behavioral health services, mental health,
substance abuse services that are desperately needed and have been
amplified, and the need has been expanded even more because of what has
happened with the coronavirus.
And there is important support in this legislation, as well, and I am
grateful to be involved in pushing that forward as well.
So there is more to talk about. I know we are a little ways away from
that final vote, but I am hopeful that the coalition that was formed--
that all of us working together that brought this together and
negotiated, and my colleagues who initiated this bipartisan effort--
will find that this is a coalition we want to keep going for next year,
because there is so much more that we need to do together, and the
American people expect us to get things done. And this, I hope, is the
first step of many to celebrate ways that we are solving problems and
helping people and moving the country forward.
Thank you, Mr. President.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Ohio.
Mr. PORTMAN. First of all, I want to agree with my colleague from
Michigan and thank her for her work concerning behavioral health and
working with us in a bipartisan group on both behavioral health and
addiction because, unfortunately, during this pandemic, the epidemic of
drug addiction and drug overdose and overdose deaths has increased
dramatically, and it is a heartbreaking reality because we were making
progress, thanks to work here in this Chamber and in the States. Around
the country, we were actually reducing not just the number of people
addicted but the number of people who were suffering from overdose and
overdose deaths.
Unfortunately, this year we are now going to see the largest overdose
death rate in the history of our country, we believe. That is a sad
reality, and we need to address it--that is part of the COVID-19
package--along with the behavioral health issues that are also,
unfortunately, being exacerbated by the isolation that comes with the
COVID-19 issue and the helpless, probably, and the joblessness that we
have been seeing.
I yield the floor.
I suggest the absence of a quorum.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
Mr. BLUNT. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for
the quorum call be rescinded.
The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Johnson). Without objection, it is so
ordered.
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