Congress Passes Full-Year Continuing Resolution, Funding the Government for the Remainder of FY25

This past Friday evening the Senate passed and President Trump signed a previously House passed continuing resolution to fund the government through the end of the 2025 fiscal year, averting a government shutdown. The CR largely keeps funding at FY24 levels, though it increases defense spending by 6% and decreases non-defense spending by 13%. The 13% decrease comes from the elimination of earmarks (or Congressionally Directed Spending) which has some implications for the Great Lakes region.

Since the return of earmarks, appropriations for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds have been split between base allotments, which go to each state’s SRFs, and Congressionally Directed Spending, which goes directly to individual projects. In FY24, the CWSRF was appropriated $1,638,861,000, of which $787,652,267 was for earmarks. The DWSRF was appropriated $1,126,101,000, of which $631,659,905 was for earmarks. The CR retains the totals, but removes the earmarks; for example, the DWSRF will receive $1,126,101,000, without any earmarks taken out.

Army Corps of Engineers projects, including the Soo Locks, could also be affected. The CR functionally reduces the Corps’ construction budget by 44%. What happened, per the Detroit News, is this:

“The House’s government-funding bill funds the Corps’ construction projects at the same levels as 2024 (about $1.8 billion), but it excludes roughly $1.4 billion that was repurposed last year from the 2021 bipartisan infrastructure bill to supplement the construction account.

The Corps’ construction account would go from nearly $3.3 billion in 2024 to about $1.8 billion under the House’s bill.”

The Corps will have discretion over which projects get what level of funding, and there is widespread belief that because of the importance of the project, the Soo Locks will receive adequate funding. But what that funding level will be is unclear as yet. The Energy and Water appropriations bill that passed out of committee in the Senate last year would have provided $450.3 million for the Soo Locks, enough to cover the Corps’ capability. The House’s version ($326.8 million) and the President’s Budget ($264 million) came in below that number.

GLTF Co-Chairs Release Statement Urging Illinois to Move Forward on Brandon Road

The Co-Chairs of the House Great Lakes Task Force – Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), and Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) – released a statement this week encouraging the state of Illinois to take action to allow the Brandon Road Lock and Dam project to move forward.

Last month, Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker delayed construction of the project on the eve of the groundbreaking ceremony, pushing the start date to May. Gov. Pritzker cited concerns over whether the federal government would honor its funding commitments, given the funding freezes implemented by the Trump administration, though it is not clear that the $274 million in already-appropriated funding is in jeopardy. In a letter to the Army Corps of Engineers, the Illinois Department of Natural Resources said that the state would move forward once they received written assurances from the administration that funding would come through.

“As Co-Chairs of the Great Lakes Task Force, we urge the state of Illinois to promptly sign the necessary documents and end further delays in the critical ecosystem protection construction at the Brandon Road Lock and Dam,” the statement reads. “This project is essential to prevent the spread of invasive carp throughout the Great Lakes. Both Illinois and Michigan signed the project partnership agreement with the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in 2024, now Illinois must take action to allow construction to proceed. Failing to do so puts the future of the Great Lakes ecosystem — and the multi-trillion-dollar economy it supports — at serious risk.”

Last year, the project saw a breakthrough after multiple delays when the states of Illinois and Michigan signed a Project Partnership Agreement with the Corps that allowed construction to move forward.

The $1.1 billion project will be split with a 90/10 federal cost share, meaning that the federal government will put $1 billion towards construction, while Illinois and Michigan will contribute the remaining $114 million. The ongoing costs for operations and maintenance will also be split with a 90/10 federal cost share, increased from 80/20 in the recent Water Resources Development Act.

NEMWI Releases Manufacturing Tracker for 119th Congress

The Senate Commerce, Science, and Transportation Committee on February 5 held a markup session and reported out numerous bills with bipartisan support, with six of the bills focused on manufacturing and related industry issues. The bills included the Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025, the Strengthening Support for American Manufacturing Act, and the Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act of 2025.

S.306, The Fire Ready Nation Act of 2025 is in response to the California fires in January which destroyed nearly 300,000 acres of land and displaced more than 100,000 people. Both local and federal governments have begun to look at ways to prevent disasters like this from being exacerbated. This bill aims to coordinate with the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) to create fire risk assessment, modeling and smoke forecasting programs with appropriations for the next five years. The act would establish a program with specific focus to Fire Weather, using research and new technology to gather data for preventive policies. All data would be open to the public and allow the Under Secretary to conduct impact assessments of communities, community partnerships, public safety, and emergency personnel. The efforts outlined in this bill aim to improve first responder actions and lower the harm of forest fires to the climate and citizens of the country.

S. 99, The Strengthening Support for American Manufacturing Act would require the Secretary of Commerce to report and recommend improvements on supply chain resilience in the defense, public health, communication, energy, transportation, and agricultural sectors.

S. 257, The Promoting Resilient Supply Chains Act of 2025 introduces a working group to study supply chain resilience, allowing members to analyze areas such as workforce, supply chains, and the technology that disrupts the manufacturing process. The working group and the Secretary of Commerce’s efforts would provide states and businesses with the insight to mitigate shocks and disruptions to supply chains.

S. 306, S. 99, and S. 257 were reported out of committee favorably without objection. These bills and other manufacturing bills introduced in the new 119^th Congress are being tracked by the Northeast-Midwest Institute on its Manufacturing Legislative Tracker which can be viewed here.

Reported by NEMWI Federal Policy Intern, Kevin Caruth, University of New Haven

House Subcommittee on the Environment Hosts Hearing To Discuss Brownfield Use

The House Committee on Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on the Environment held a hearing on Tuesday, March 11, to discuss the current state of brownfield programs and the potential for new and innovative land uses on remediated brownfield sites, former industrial sites that have been contaminated with hazardous substances or carry a risk of such contamination. There are nearly 450,000 sites across the country that can be considered brownfields. This hearing comes about a month after the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works voted to favorably report legislation to the full body of the Senate that would reauthorize funding for the EPA Brownfields and Land Revitalization Program.

The hearing was run by Subcommittee Chair Morgan Griffith (R-VA) and included testimony from four witnesses from different sectors, all involved in different aspects of the brownfields remediation and repurposing process. Before witness testimony, committee and subcommittee leadership emphasized the importance of brownfield revitalization as a driver for bipartisanship and economic development, especially in local communities that receive grants and support from the EPA Brownfields Program.

The first witness to testify was James Connaughton, an environmental lawyer and the CEO of JLC Strategies LLC. Connaughton previously served as the Chairman of the White House Council on Environmental Quality under President George W. Bush and was involved in the passage of the Brownfields Act in 2002. Connaughton discussed the need for changes to the brownfields redevelopment process, specifically the administrative delays and barriers that often arise during permitting and assessment. He also addressed issues that come with connecting redeveloped brownfields to the electrical grid, and reiterated the importance of developing infrastructure to sustain population growth across the nation.

J. Christian Bollwage is the mayor of Elizabeth, New Jersey and serves as the Chair of the United States Conference of Mayors. Throughout the hearing, he discussed the importance of continued federal support for the EPA brownfields program and called for an increase in funding to support communities as they redevelop brownfield sites. He emphasized the role that prior legislation such as the Inflation Reduction Act and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law had in helping continue brownfield cleanup, while also emphasizing the bipartisan history of the program.

Duane Miller is the director of the LENOWISCO Planning District Commission in Southwestern Virginia, a primarily rural area used in the past for coal mining. Many of these mines in the area have been abandoned and became brownfields. Miller emphasized the importance of the EPA brownfields program on sparking economic growth and job creation. In the LENOWISCO planning district, many of these former brownfields have become data centers, which are crucial in the age of cloud computing and artificial intelligence. These new land uses would help to keep economic growth as the population grows in rural areas across the country.

The final witness was Christa D. Stoneham, the CEO and President of the Houston Land Bank and a member of the National Brownfields Coalition. Stoneham discussed the impact that undeveloped brownfields have on inhibiting economic and job growth. Houston, Texas is unique because of its lack of zoning laws, meaning that brownfields can be found next to homes, schools, and community spaces, posing risks to public health as well. Stoneham addressed the role of land banks in brownfields development, explaining that these nonprofits take on properties that private enterprises will not. She also discussed projects undertaken in Houston, specifically Project Yellow Cab, which turned a brownfield into a large affordable housing complex with greenspaces.

While there is robust bipartisan support for the program, many committee members and witnesses expressed concerns about how the proposed funding and staffing cuts at the EPA, leaving questions about how brownfields cleanup and the program as a whole will be impacted. Mayor Bollwage discussed a $500,000 grant given to Elizabeth, New Jersey from the EPA for job creation and training; however, due to cuts at the EPA, the grant has been delayed and no one at the EPA is answering the phone. Ms. Stoneman emphasized that the proposed 65% cuts at the EPA would slow down projects and disproportionately affect the disadvantaged communities that she serves in Houston.

Throughout questioning, subcommittee members showed support for the program while calling for changes to streamline the application and grant process, with many highlighting successes in their districts. In addition, in the hearing, Representative Griffith said that he anticipates the program being reauthorized by the subcommittee.

Reported by NEMWI Environmental Policy Intern William Cohen, Binghamton University

EPA Looks To Reverse Course on Energy, Electric Vehicles, WOTUS

Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin announced the rollback of 31 Biden administration actions on March 12 in what he called, “the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in U.S. history.” The EPA’s moves focus mostly on energy production, electric vehicles, and air pollution, and must go through the typical rulemaking process and be subject to public comment and review.

The EPA announced it would attempt to scrap the Clean Power Plan 2.0, regulation that would require all coal plants and new natural gas plants to use carbon capture technology to capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032 if they planned to be operational in 2040. The rule has the potential to remove 1.4 billion tons of pollutants by 2047, according to an EPA estimate when the CPP was announced. The EPA will also look to loosen particulate matter regulations, reconsider the Mercury and Air Toxics Standard, and eliminate the “good neighbor rule” that reduced ozone pollution across states by 18% until it was struck down by the Supreme Court last year.

Three rules focused on cars, the Model Year 2027 and Later Light-Duty and Medium-Duty Vehicles regulation, the Greenhouse Gas Emissions Standards for Heavy-Duty Vehicles, and the Heavy Duty Nitrous Oxide Rule, are also under review. The rules would set stricter standards for gas-powered cars, encouraging automakers to implement technologies to reduce emissions. In 2022, the EPA claimed that the Light-Duty and Medium-Duty regulations would reduce emissions by 44%.

Zeldin also announced a review of the definition of Waters of the United States (WOTUS) after the Supreme Court ruled in Sackett v. United States to limit the bodies of water that EPA has jurisdiction over. Particularly, the Court found in Sackett that wetlands without “a continuous surface connection to bodies of water of the United States in their own right,” are not covered. The Biden EPA rewrote the rule in 2023 to comply with Sackett while maintaining the administration’s priorities around clean water protections, though conservatives charged that the rule was unclear and did not properly implement the ruling. The EPA wants to ensure the revised rule “follows the law, reduces red-tape, cuts overall permitting costs, and lowers the cost of doing business in communities across the country while protecting the nation’s navigable waters from pollution,” the agency wrote in a press release.

But the EPA also signaled much grander ambitions with the announcement that the EPA would embark on “a formal reconsideration” of the 2009 endangerment finding, an EPA determination based on the Supreme Court decision in Massachusetts v. EPA that the agency has the authority to regulate greenhouse gases as a public health hazard. The attempt to reverse it, which will invite legal challenges, could unravel all of EPA’s existing climate regulations and prevent the agency from imposing regulations in the future.

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