U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin Works to Increase Funding for Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

WASHINGTON, D.C. - U.S. Senator Tammy Baldwin, a member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, worked to secure an additional $9 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) for Fiscal Year 2020.

“Investments in the Great Lakes are an investment in the future of Wisconsin’s economy. I am proud to have worked in a bipartisan way to increase funding for our Great Lakes,” said Senator Baldwin. “The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has earned bipartisan support and is critical for the health of our region, our communities, and our clean water resources. It helps us clean up polluted sites, restore water quality and combat invasive species. Preserving the Great Lakes is not just an environmental goal - it is an economic necessity for Wisconsin.”

The funding passed the Senate as an amendment, introduced by Senators Gary Peters (D-MI) and Rob Portman (R-OH), to bipartisan appropriations legislation.

Since its inception, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has tripled the successful cleanup and delisting of Areas of Concern, reduced phosphorus runoff and the threat of harmful algal blooms, controlled and stopped the advancement of invasive species, and restored wildlife habitat over thousands of miles of rivers and waterways. Since 2010, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has provided more than $2.5 billion to fund 4,706 projects throughout the Great Lakes region.

In July, Senator Baldwin, a member of the bipartisan Senate Great Lakes Task Force, introduced the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2019 to reauthorize and expand funding for the Great Lakes.