releases: https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-floor-portman-applauds-senate-passage-great-lakes-restoration
Data license: MIT · Data source: dwillis/congress-press
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| https://www.portman.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/senate-floor-portman-applauds-senate-passage-great-lakes-restoration | On Senate Floor, Portman Applauds Senate Passage of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act | 2020-12-21 | 2020 | 2020-12 | Republican | Senate | OH | Rob Portman | P000449 | www.portman.senate.gov | legacy | On Senate Floor, Portman Applauds Senate Passage of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act Bill Now Heads to the White House for the President's Signature December 20, 2020 | Press Releases WASHINGTON, DC Tonight on the Senate floor, U.S. Senator Rob Portman (R-OH), co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, applauded Senate passage of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) Act, which is now headed to the president's desk for his signature. Senator Portman joined Senator Debbie Stabenow in introducing the GLRI Act to reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which was set to expire at the end of FY 2021, for another five years. The bill increases the current authorization level from $300 million to $375 million in FY 2022 and increases funding by $25 million per year until it reaches $475 million in FY 2026. The House companion bill was authored by Representatives Dave Joyce (R-OH) and Marcy Kaptur (D-OH). Portman has led the effort in the Senate to reauthorize and fully fund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), a results-driven program to address the most serious issues that threaten the ecological and economic well-being of the Great Lakes basin, including invasive species, pollution, and toxic contamination. The final FY 2020 funding measure included$320 million for GLRI,the largest investment in the program since its enactment. Additionally, in 2019, Portman's bipartisan Harmful Algal Blooms and Hypoxia Research and Control Amendments Act which helps protect fresh water bodies such as Lake Erie by reauthorizing the Harmful Algal Bloom and Hypoxia Research and Control Act (HABHRCA) was signed into law. A transcript of the speech can be found below and a video can be found here. Mr. President, first, I am delighted that we are finally at the point where we're passing legislation to deal with the COVID-19 crisis that has gripped my state and our country. We have a health care pandemic. We have an economic crisis. And I'm pleased to say that on a bipartisan basis we're now coming together, as we did nine months ago with the CARES Act. It shouldn't have been nine months, but we now have a targeted bill that focuses on providing a bridge between now and the time at which the vaccines will be widely available, and we need the help. The economy is faltering, as was just said. But also the health care crisis in my home state and so many other places has gotten worse. So it's time -- past time. Now I'm told I've given 21 speeches on the floor about the bipartisan nature of this. There's so many areas of common ground and I was pleased to be part of the ten person bipartisan group that put together our own package over the last month. I think that helped to encourage leaders on both sides to see that there was a lot of common ground, there were ways for us to come together. One of my colleagues is on the floor with me now, Senator Stabenow from Michigan. She is one of those Democrats who I spoke to over a month ago about this bipartisan process. We talked about the common ground and the ability for us to find ways to move ahead to help those small businesses that truly are struggling, individuals who through no fault of their own lost their jobs because of the economic crisis precipitated by the pandemic. And to help our schools and to help our health care providers and to help ensure that we are doing what we can here to help at the local level to respond to this crisis. Tonight I'm on the floor to join my colleague, Senator Stabenow from Michigan, to ask our colleagues to support legislation that has to do with the Great Lakes. It's called the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. We're asking to reauthorize that legislation. This is one of those public-private partnerships that works. It's not only public like federal public and private. It's federal, state, and local and private individuals coming together to figure out how to keep our Great Lakes, the amazing treasure that it is. I represent Lake Erie. It is 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 Big Head 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've ruined other bodies of water for recreational and commercial fishing. Second to deal with our toxic algal blooms. You've probably heard about this but we have these blooms that are increasingly forming in Lake Erie, particularly in the western basin and the Toledo area. And 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've gone fishing in the Great Lakes every year for the past many years. I love the Great Lakes. I grew up -- part of my childhood was on the Great Lakes, when I was a little kid fishing with my dad on the Great Lakes. You really can't fish when the algal blooms come in because they're so thick you literally can't get a lure or bait through the algal blooms. And your boat has a tough time getting through it. 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 think of this, moms with babies who couldn't use the water. They were told don't allow your babies to have the formula be made from the water from the faucet because it's too dangerous, too toxic because these algal blooms had gotten into the water system. That's how scary this is if we don't ensure that we are taking efforts at every level -- state, local, private sector, and federal. Lake Erie and the other Great Lakes now provide drinking water for 40 million people. 40 million people. We want to be sure that that treasure continues, not just for recreation and fishing and swimming and so on, but also for the water supply for so many Americans. So the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is a down payment 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 algal blooms and the erosion that's occurring as the water goes up and also some pollution issues that remain in Lake Erie and all the Great Lakes. Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Works. I've been to about ten of these sites all around Ohio and I've 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 that Hey you have to stop farming because you're putting nitrogen and phosphorous into the creek that goes by your farm that's going into the Maumee River and then into Lake Erie and causing these algal blooms to grow,' instead, you say, How can we work with you as a farmer to try to reduce your runoff?' And we've had great success in that. But there's some expense in it. Often you have to provide for filters and pumps and so on to get this from going into the water supply. Dealing with these upstream issues with regard to algal blooms and the phosphorus and nitrogen is very important and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative does that. So, I'm 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 and we had answers because this is a program that works. I've seen it work. And I'm really pleased to partner with Senator Stabenow. We're co-chairs of the Great Lakes Task Force. She is the Democrat co-chair, I am the Republican co-chair. And tonight partnering with her on this legislation. I thank her for her friendship, her work on this issue, her passion for the Great Lakes. And I would like, if I could, Mr. President, to now turn to Senator Stabenow. ### | 1 | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z | 2026-03-30T12:14:52Z |