[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 3]
[House]
[Pages 4076-4077]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   GREAT LAKES RESTORATION INITIATIVE

  (Ms. KAPTUR asked and was given permission to address the House for 1 
minute.)
  Ms. KAPTUR. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to speak on behalf of an 
important bipartisan-supported vital Environmental Protection Agency 
program,

[[Page 4077]]

the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, spanning the largest body of 
freshwater on the face of the Earth. Many media outlets have suggested 
that the President intends to cut this program by 90 percent--90 
percent.
  I would like to clarify that this proposal is not yet official, but 
it is more than a rumor. So I would like to believe that this President 
who achieved the White House by carrying the Great Lake States of 
Michigan, Indiana, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, and my own Ohio, would not 
take this awful step backward.
  Candidate Trump traveled to Flint, Michigan, and promised that the 
water situation would never happen if he were President. Is he going to 
reverse his firm promise of clean water?
  The blue economy of the Great Lakes depends on clean water: a $7 
billion maritime industry in Lake Erie alone; jobs related to the 
automotive and industrial sector of our country; recreational 
opportunities; and, most importantly, preserves clean drinking water 
for the millions and millions of people who depend on that today and in 
the future.
  Supporting the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is not partisan; it 
is common sense.

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