[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 199 (Wednesday, December 21, 2022)]
[House]
[Pages H9916-H9919]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
GREAT LAKES AUTHORITY
The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from
Ohio (Ms. Kaptur) for 5 minutes.
Ms. KAPTUR. Madam Speaker, I rise for two reasons.
First, as founding cochair of the Ukraine Caucus, I rise to express
gratitude to our Speaker, Nancy Pelosi, for extending the invitation to
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy to address our Congress in this
beloved House tonight. What a consequential moment in world history his
remarks will elucidate.
Our Ukraine Caucus, which is bipartisan, will warmly welcome him as a
brother in the cause of liberty.
Madam Speaker, I include in the Record the names of Members of our
bipartisan caucus.
Congressional Ukraine Caucus Members
Ami Bera (CA-07)
Gus Bilirakis (FL-12)
Jamaal Bowman (NY-16)
Brendan Boyle (PA-02)
Julia Brownley (CA-26)
Vern Buchanan (FL-16)
Michael Burgess (TX-26)
Kat Cammack (FL-03)
Andre Carson (IN-07)
Matt Cartwright (PA-08)
Sean Casten (IL-06)
David Cicilline (RI-01)
Steve Cohen (TN-09)
Gerry Connolly (VA-11)
Jim Costa (CA-16)
Joe Courtney (CT-02)
Jason Crow (CO-06)
Danny K. Davis (IL-07)
Madeleine Dean (PA-04)
Rosa DeLaura (CT-03)
Suzan DelBene (WA-01)
Debbie Dingell (MI-12)
Lloyd Doggett (TX-35)
Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01)
Ruben Gallego (AZ-07)
Josh Gottheimer (NJ-05)
Andy Harris (MD-01)
Jaime Herrera Beutler (WA-03)
Brian Higgins (NY-26)
French Hill (AR-02)
Jim Himes (CT-04)
Eleanor Holmes Norton (DC-00)
Steven Horsford (NV-04)
Ronny Jackson (TX-13)
Sheila Jackson Lee (TX-18)
Hakeem Jeffries (NY-08)
Bill Johnson (OH-06)
Mondaire Jones (NY-17)
David Joyce (OH-14)
Marcy Kaptur (OH-09)
William Keating (MA-09)
Andy Kim (NJ-03)
Ron Kind (WI-03)
Adam Kinzinger (IL-16)
Raja
Krishnamoorthi (IL-08)
Ann Kuster (NH-02)
Doug Lamborn (CO-O5)
James Langevin (RI-02)
Mike Levin (CA-49)
Andy Levin (MI-09)
Nicole Malliotakis (NY-11)
Carolyn Maloney (NY-12)
A. Donald McEachin (VA-04)
Cathy McMorris Rodgers (WA-O5)
Jerry McNerney (CA-09)
Peter Meijer (MI-03)
Dan Meuser (PA-09)
Kweisi Mfume (MD-07)
Mariannette Miller-Meeks (IA-02)
Joe Morelle (NY-25)
Seth Moulton (MA-06)
Frank Pallone (NJ-06)
William Pascrell (NJ-09)
Nancy Pelosi (CA-12)
August Pfluger (TX-11)
Dean Phillips (MN-03)
Chellie Pingree (ME-01)
David Price (NC-04)
Mike Quigley (IL-O5)
Kathleen Rice (NY-04)
Deborah Ross (NC-02)
Bobby Rush (IL-01)
Tim Ryan (OH-13)
Mary Gay Scanlon (PA-O5)
Jan Schakowsky (IL-09)
Adam Schiff (CA-28)
Bobby Scott (VA-04)
Brad Sherman (CA-30)
Mikie Sherrill (NJ-11)
Elissa Slotkin (MI-08)
Adam Smith (WA-09)
Chris Smith (NJ-04)
Victoria Spartz (IN-05)
Haley Stevens (MI-11)
Chris Stewart (UT-02)
Eric Swalwell (CA-15)
Ritchie Torres (NY-15)
Lori Trahan (MA-03)
David Trone (MD-06)
Fred Upton (MI-06)
Debbie Wasserman Schultz (FL-07)
Susan Wild (PA-O7)
Joe Wilson (SC-02)
Steve Womack (AR-03)
Ms. KAPTUR. Secondly, I also rise with considerable excitement as the
Great Lakes Authority legislation,
[[Page H9917]]
which dozens and dozens of Members in both Chamber have supported, has
been included in the 2023 omnibus bill.
The Great Lakes watershed is the only region in our Nation without an
economic instrumentality helping it to adjust to changing economic
conditions--the only place in this country. The Great Lakes Authority
will unlock the economic heartland's full potential for the century
ahead.
The Midwest communities that I represent are home to the people who
make, build, and grow what makes, builds, and grows America.
For decades, however, our region has borne the brunt of job losses,
largely the direct result of disastrous trade policies,
underinvestment, and deindustrialization.
Since the passage of NAFTA in 1993, then China's entrance into the
World Trade Organization in 2001, and CAFTA's passage in 2005, over
91,000 factories have closed across America--most in the region that I
represent. Millions of good-paying jobs have been snuffed out.
{time} 1230
Middle-class workers and families in the Great Lakes region,
including Ohio, Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Minnesota,
Illinois, and New York, have suffered as good-paying jobs disappeared.
Too many communities have been shattered.
The tragedy does not end there. Local governments have been left
scrambling as declining revenues led to the collapse of budgets and the
accumulation of crushing bonded indebtedness.
The size and scope of these accumulated economic challenges are too
much for any one city or State to overcome alone. Places like Toledo,
Lorain, Detroit, Buffalo, Flint, places with hardworking people
throughout the region, have been scarred and struggle still to recover
from the outsourcing of manufacturing and shipping jobs, including in
agriculture, to penny-wage countries.
Meanwhile, impacted towns like Chicago, Erie, Pennsylvania, and
Cleveland, Ohio, are limited in their ability to halt climate change
and reverse its effects on their shorelines and natural habitats.
The Great Lakes region, the largest body of freshwater on Earth,
needs accelerated investments and strategic support to get back on
track.
Last year, in a bipartisan manner, this Congress accomplished what
many had tried but failed to do: pass a historic investment in jobs and
infrastructure. Billions of dollars are already on their way to some
places, but we need to accelerate them to this region.
These dollars will empower our communities to rebuild roads and
bridges; improve ports, rail lines, and airports; modernize energy and
water infrastructure; and protect Lake Erie and the adjoining Great
Lakes, which is the freshwater kingdom of the world and our continent.
All of this funding, every penny, is an investment in good-paying
jobs. But to maximize the impact and turbocharge revitalization, our
region needs a strategic plan to marshal these resources, work
together, and invest for the future.
The Great Lakes region is the largest region in America that lacks
such a Federal entity, and we can see where the West's water is served
by the Bureau of Reclamation. The Delta Regional Authority helps 10
million people in the Delta region, and more than 400 counties from
Mississippi to West Virginia are served by the Appalachian Regional
Commission. Our region has long needed such an entity.
The Great Lakes authority will be a Federal-State mechanism created
by us, the Congress, to spur creation of jobs and establish world-class
worker education, training, and adjustment institutions in communities
left behind.
Our goals for the Great Lakes authority are to foster innovation and
expand the core U.S. manufacturing, industrial, and agricultural bases.
We intend for it to promote new advances in renewable energy
technologies, like solar, wind, and hydrogen, while helping us conserve
and steward our environmental assets. It should also convene various
agencies to help us produce this plan for the future. Finally, the
Great Lakes authority provides a new opportunity for American progress,
and I look forward to the true possibilities this authority will
unleash.
I include in the Record a proposal from various members to President
Biden.
Proposal: A Great Lakes Authority
For the Consideration of:
Joseph R. Biden, Jr. President, United States of America
Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH),
Co-Chair, Great Lakes Task Force.
Rep. Paul Tonko (D-NY),
Chair, Environment & Climate Change Subcommittee.
Rep. Haley Stevens (D-MI),
Co-Chair, House Manufacturing Task Force.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI),
Co-Chair, Great Lakes Task Force.
Rep. Bobby Rush (D-IL),
Chair, Energy Subcommittee.
Summary. The eight states that comprise the U.S. portion of
the Great Lakes watershed contain the core of America's
commercial and defense industrial base.
The Department of Homeland Security defines these
industries as ``America's Critical Manufacturing Sector''.
Failure or disruption within these industries would result in
cascading disruptions in other critical sectors of the
economy, in multiple regions, and have significant national
economic impact.
This existing industrial base contains the nation's largest
pool of skilled and experienced production workers. The
Region has an almost inexhaustible supply of fresh water.
These 8 States do 25 percent of all U.S. trade with Canada,
which is this nation's largest export market. In 2020, Canada
imported more than $255 billion of U.S. goods and services.
This base provides a solid foundation for creating a unique
21st Century regional development strategy--one that can
enable the United States to (1) build back its manufacturing
base, (2) create millions of new and better jobs within the
Region, and (3) restore an assured, U.S. defense industrial
sector and a resilient energy platform sufficient to power
U.S.-based production.
Franklin D. Roosevelt created the model for such a strategy
in 1933 with the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA)--a unique
institution brought into being to control the raging waters
of the Tennessee River, provide low-cost electricity, and
advance the economic development of the under-invested seven
states in that Basin.
Our times require a 21st Century version of such an
Authority in the Great Lakes Region--one that can protect and
wisely use the fresh waters of the Great Lakes, build back
better the Region's economy and be a necessary exemplar for
climate change remediation.
The GLA's mission would be to:
Restore and protect America's principal source of fresh
water.
Foster innovation, commercialize it, and by that create
more and better jobs.
Strengthen and expand the core U.S. manufacturing and
defense industrial base, and the required energy systems to
sustain/power production.
Create world-class worker education, training and
adjustment institutions.
Work with the Government and Provinces of Canada on our
mutual Great Lakes challenges including the Great Lakes--
Saint Lawrence Seaway Corporation.
The Chair of the Great Lakes Authority would be a Cabinet
level official appointed by the President and confirmed by
the U.S. Senate. The Chair would represent the U.S.
Government. A five person board lead by the Chair would be
joined by four bipartisan board members appointed by the U.S.
House and Senate leadership.
The GLA would be governed by a five-person, bipartisan
Board, each of whom serves for a five-year term. The Chair
would be a Cabinet level official appointed by the President,
confirmed by the U.S. Senate and be a full-time position. The
other four members of the Board would be appointed by the
Majority and Minority Leaders of the U.S. House of
Representatives and the U.S. Senate. Each would be confirmed
by the U.S. Senate. Eligible appointees would be limited to
residents of the Region who are currently active as a
corporate manufacturing CEO, head of a major financial
institution, President of a Land Grant University, or CEO of
a major distribution company. These four positions would be
part-time and compensated as is normal with private
corporations.
The Great Lakes Authority would be funded by the same ways
and means as was, and is now, the Tennessee Valley Authority
(TVA) and include both federally appropriated funds and
revenues generated by GLA projects, with the same annual
financing similar to that of the Bureau of Reclamation.
The Great Lakes Authority would be authorized and funded
to:
Create and administer a regional infrastructure bank that
could finance domestic civil works that have a dedicated
revenue stream such as water and wastewater systems,
Create and finance other domestic civil works from
appropriated funds,
Create and operate a business development fund to assist in
the establishment and expansion of regional-based
manufacturers,
Create university-based research, development, and
technical consortiums,
Create the 18th National Laboratory, with satellites as
necessary in GLA states, and dedicate it to advancing applied
science, the
[[Page H9918]]
manufacturing arts, and the commercialization of advanced
technology products,
Create a patent hub that will aggressively invest and
develop new clean energy inventions, technologies and
industries, and
Create and fund world-class remedial, transition and
advanced education and training institutions and programs
that invest in the workers of the Region.
The United States has long dealt with regional challenges
with regional solutions. The TV A is an example. The purpose
of this proposal is to outline why a Great Lakes Authority is
needed and identify how it can make a major contribution to
building back better this vital region of the United States.
Today, alone of the U.S.'s major economic regions, the Great
Lakes states do not have such a vital development
institution.
The Challenge. Manufacturing and Job Losses--The United
States has closed 91,000 factories and lost 5 million
manufacturing jobs since NAFTA was enacted in 1993 and China
joined the World Trade Organization in 2000. The 8-state
Great Lakes Region lost 1.5 millions of those jobs--that is,
30 percent. Many of the Region's people were unable to adapt
and have responded with addiction, suicide, conspiracy
fantasies, and political radicalization. Manufacturing Jobs
Lost Since NAFTA and China Entered the WTO (lQ 1993-lQ 2018).
Weakened Finances--These losses of factories and jobs, in
turn, have greatly weakened the fiscal capacity of the
Region's state and local governments.
A measure of this fiscal crisis is found in the high
municipal indebtedness of the Region's cities. Detroit and
Cleveland each have a municipal bonded indebtedness of more
than two billion dollars. Toledo owes $1.6 billion and
Milwaukee almost $1.4 billion. Faced with the high costs of
operation, repairs, rehabilitation and replacement, coupled
with unavoidable federal mandates that come with only 50
percent funding, these municipalities are forced to increase
utility rates on customers who are already in economic
trouble.
The On-Going, Great Lakes Ecological Catastrophe--The
Region's five Great Lakes--Erie, Huron, Michigan, Ontario,
and Superior--are the source of 21% of the world's surface
freshwater and 84% of North America's. These Lakes undergird
life, work and recreation for tens of millions of people.
Yet, before our eyes they are succumbing to an ecological
disaster of epic proportions. Dan Egan in The Death and Life
of the Great Lakes writes:
The Great Lakes are now home to 186 non-native species.
None has been more devastating than the Junior Mint-sized
zebra and quagga mussels . . . leaving trillions upon
trillions of filter-feeding quagga mussels sucking the life
out of the lake itself . . . native fish populations have
been decimated. Bird-killing botulism outbreaks plague
lakeshores. Poisonous algae slick capable of shutting down
public water supplies have become a routine summertime
threat. A virus that causes deadly hemorrhaging in dozens of
species of fish, dubbed by some scientists the `fish Ebola'
has become endemic in the lakes and threatens to spread
across the continent.
Yet, invasive species are only one of many threats to what
in fact is the largest inland sea in the world. Researchers
at the Universities of Wisconsin and Michigan have created a
``threat map'' that analyzes 34 distinct threats that affect
these five lakes. The composite stresses include not only
invasive species but also toxic algae, erosion, development,
waste plastics and toxic pollutants among other sources.
Cumulative Stress in the Great Lakes. Today, the state and
local governments of the region are themselves so
economically strapped that they are fiscally incapable of
making the remediations that the Lakes require. Major fiscal
help and institutional leadership from the Federal Government
is essential if this ecological catastrophe is to be stopped
and then reversed.
Innovation--Regarding innovation in the Great Lakes region,
a telling measure of the region's innovation decline is found
by comparing whether these eight states have kept pace with
the rest of the United States in devising inventions that are
sufficiently new, non-obvious and useful that inventors and
companies file and receive a patent from the United States
Patent Office (USPTO). The Great Lakes states have not kept
pace with innovation. Specifically, in 1990, 51,000 U.S.
patents were issued and in 2020 the USPTO granted 188,000--an
increase of 265 percent.
In 2020, California residents were granted 571 percent more
patents than they were in 1990. Oregon residents got 553
percent more. Washington State residents were awarded a
whopping 901 percent more. Not a single Great Lake State even
reached the national average by 2020. All fell behind the
pace of U.S. invention.
The Nuclear Power Issue--Heavy power demands across the
region require a dependable baseload energy supply with a
highly skilled workforce. Today, the Region has 17 nuclear
reactors at 15 sites in operation. Nuclear power provides 15%
of the electricity for Ohio and Wisconsin, 23% for Minnesota,
29% for Michigan, 33% for New York, 41% for Pennsylvania, and
53% for Illinois.
Competition pressures from massive, new natural gas
supplies have created financial pressures that make nuclear
power more expensive. These zero net carbon nuclear plants
have become financially uncompetitive. Yet, thousands of
companies and hundreds of thousands of workers depend on
this nuclear base load. For the foreseeable future,
nuclear energy must be a key segment of electricity
generation or neither economic development nor climate
change goals can be attained. Ways are means are required
to extend the operation of these nuclear facilities and,
working with all stakeholders, increase electric
production beyond what private enterprise appears to be
able to facilitate in a quickly changing and uncertain
market.
The Brookings Study--A decade ago, the Great Recession and
the collapse of the U.S. auto industry highlighted the
manufacturing decline in the Region. Regional leaders engaged
the Brookings Institute to help identify a consensus among
private-sector and public stakeholders as to what to do to
create the next economy. The result was a report: ``The Next
Economy: Economic Recovery and Transformation in the Great
Lakes Region.'' The report called for the federal, state,
metropolitan leaders to join with the private and
philanthropic sectors to:
Invest in the assets that matter--innovation,
infrastructure and human capital, Devise new public-private
institutions that are market-oriented and performance-driven,
Reimagine metros' form and governance structures to set the
right conditions for economic growth.
The report was issued in September 2010. The unstated
expectation was that the report and leadership consensus
would guide the Obama Administration's second round of
recovery actions post-2010. It never happened. In November
2010, control of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives
changed. What happened next is that the U.S. devolved into
ten years of national political gridlock.
Neither the state, nor local governments, nor the
industries, nor the companies, nor the people of the region
could meet the magnitude of this challenge alone. Nor could
they form a joint regional strategy because there was no
regional institution through which the leaders of the Region
could define, advocate and create such a truly regional
strategy.
What the Great Lakes Region needed then, and needs even
more now, is a 21st Century Great Lakes Authority--an
institution that can help the Region innovate, create jobs
and confront the compounding environmental and climate
challenges.
This proposed Great Lakes Authority can be that
Institution. By its structure, focus, coherence, funding and
leadership it can help the Region and nation envision,
implement and sustain an aggressive Great Lakes strategic
development agenda. This proposed Authority can be an
institutional anchor to aid the Region to sustain a long-term
effort through the storms, calms and vagaries of national
policy making.
A Great Lakes Authority. The United States has always
supported regional solutions to regional development and
regional challenges. The principal of these efforts is
managed by the Bureau of Land Management, which traces its
roots to 1812 and was formed, in part, to serve arid parts of
the nation with regional water resources and power
generation.
Then, in 1933 during the economic depression, FDR created
the 7-state TVA. In 1965, President Lyndon Johnson created
the 13-state Appalachian Regional Commission. Their
successors have created regional commissions in other parts
of the U.S.
These regional instrumentalities were created to strengthen
the economies of these Regions and help those states achieve
economic equality with the rest of the Nation. Additional
regional efforts have been proposed in other states.
Two of these Regional Commissions (Delta and Northern
Border) have been provided minuscule funding. The Southeast
Crescent Region and Southwest Border Regional Commissions
have not been activated.
Strikingly, the Great Lakes Region has neither a Regional
Authority, such as TVA, nor even a lesser-funded regional
commission. Simply put, building back better the Great Lakes
Region is a challenge that requires an empowered and well-
financed Great Lakes Authority.
Lessons from the TVA--Now, almost nine decades after its
founding, some lessons from TVA's experiences provide clear
guidance for this proposed Great Lakes Authority. Many
environmental and economic problems are not bound by state
boundaries. Regional approaches are required to solve
regional challenges.
The development institutions and capacities of any Region
are so atomized as to be ineffectual when dealing with
broader issues of mutual concern. The 2010 Brookings report
highlighted that: ``The metropolitan areas of the Great Lakes
are ruled by a byzantine network of cities, counties, towns,
townships, villages, school boards, fire districts, library
districts, workforce boards, industrial development
authorities, water and sewer districts and a host of other
entities.'' The Brookings scholars concluded that the
metropolitan areas of the Great Lakes need to begin speaking
with a unified voice on economic development and design and
implement a unified strategy. A Regional Authority can
facilitate such coherence.
The TVA has a 200-person unit devoted to the economic
development of the 7-state TVA region. It is far larger,
better funded and more effective than any of the 7 state
efforts in the Region. The TVA provides; (a) an international
capacity to identify and source private capital investment,
(b) secure domestic finance through state, municipal, banking
and venture funds, as well as (c) the guidance required to
select sites and coordinate
[[Page H9919]]
infrastructure and agreements at low, long-term interest
rates. With these capacities, TVA has created a powerful
supplement to state and local efforts to attract capital
investment and jobs into the Tennessee Valley. It works well.
The Great Lakes basin would benefit from this TVA approach.
Conclusion. When conceiving the TVA, President Franklin D.
Roosevelt focused on equity. What FDR challenged was an
inequality that was out of control between capital and labor
and also between the regions of the United States,
particularly the Southern and Appalachian regions. FDR closed
much of this inequality--both between people and between
regions. Since the early 1980s, the inequalities between the
few and the many, the coasts and the interior, and the
developed and underdeveloped regions of the U.S. have
widened.
Now, it appears that a new era has opened with the
Administration of President Joseph Biden. The new balance
between economic efficiency and economic equity now appears
to be once again emphasizing a more equitable distribution of
economic growth and opportunities for both people and
regions. The Great Lakes region has been falling behind by
almost every measure and needs substantial attention to
reverse economic and environmental challenges. A Great Lakes
Authority is as vital a development tool for the Biden-Harris
Era of today as TVA was for the Roosevelt Era of the 1930s.
____________________