Great Lakes Day Celebrated On Capitol Hill
March 4, 2016
By: The Beacon
March 4, 2016
Great Lakes advocates from around the country gathered on Capitol Hill for Great Lakes Day, sponsored by the Great Lakes Commission.
Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur accompanied a group from the Lake Erie Improvement Association to an event at the Canadian Embassy on Wednesday evening. The group included: Jim Stouffer, President of the Lake Erie Improvement Association, Sandy Bihn, Lake Erie Waterkeeper, Jack Madison, Lake Erie Improvement Association, and Larry Fletcher, Lake Erie Shores and Islands.
In remarks before the Great Lakes Commission’s Congressional Breakfast, Congresswoman Kaptur, who co-chairs Congress' Great Lakes Caucus, reiterated her call for action on water infrastructure challenges facing the region. "I am proud to represent the largest Lake Erie coastal district from Toledo to Cleveland. The challenge for water infrastructure funding is real in Congress," said Kaptur. "While there is a large amount of Federal investment in other parts of our country, for example, the West has the Bureau of Reclamation, nothing like that entity exists for our Great Lakes Region. We need to do more to fund the aging water systems throughout the Great Lakes Region.”
Great Lakes Day is an annual event hosted by the Great Lakes Commission and the Northeast-Midwest Institute which brings together regional organizations and federal policy-makers to discuss progress on and needs for Great Lakes restoration and protection.
Each year, the Great Lakes Commission, the Northeast-Midwest Institute, the Council of Great Lakes Governors, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, the Mayors of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, Tribal agencies, the Great Lakes Metro Chambers Coalition, and others, bring approximately 150 people from the region to Washington. Together, these groups convey a unified message to Congress expressing the Great Lakes region's priorities for legislation and appropriations to protect the environment and support the economy.