[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.

     

                          ____________________