Senate EPW Committee Advances

GLRI Reauthorization

The Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works on Wednesday held a markup of the bipartisan Great Lakes Restoration Initiative Act of 2024, and advanced the bill by voice vote. The GLRI Act would reauthorize the program for five more years, from 2027-31, and increase its authorized funding level to $500 million per year. The bill was introduced by Senators Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) and J.D. Vance (R-OH), Co-Chairs of the Great Lakes Task Force, and has 14 sponsors in the Senate.

In his opening statement, Committee Chair Tom Carper (D-DE) said, “Since its inception in 2010, this successful bipartisan program has protected or enhanced hundreds of thousands of acres of wildlife habitat and accelerated the cleanup of polluted sites in the Great Lakes region. Extending the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will continue to ensure restoring and protecting Great Lakes ecosystems.”

Ranking Member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV) also voiced her support, saying, “This initiative supports important activities to address environmental challenges facing the Great Lakes in coordination with non-federal partners. I’m pleased to support this legislation.”

Senator Stabenow, a member of the Committee, added remarks after the vote, thanking the Committee and Senator Vance for his partnership. “GLRI has spurred a five-fold increase in successful cleanup and delisting of Areas of Concern, kept over two million pounds of phosphorus runoff from reaching our Great Lakes...This is why the program shares such strong bipartisan support – it works,” she said. “But there is still a lot more left to do. That’s why today’s bill is so important. It ensures that the program will continue to restore and protect our Great Lakes for years to come.”

Learn more about the GLRI Act of 2024 and other Great Lakes legislation at our Great Lakes Legislative Tracker here.

EPA’s Regan Addresses

House, Senate Appropriations Committees

Both the House and Senate Appropriations Subcommittees on Interior and the Environment held hearings last week on the President’s FY25 Budget for the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The Budget includes notable Great Lakes provisions, such as $368 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), a combined $2.365 billion for the Clean Water and Drinking Water State Revolving Funds, and $9.81 million for BEACH grants. Over the course of the two hearings, EPA Administrator Michael Regan fielded questions from Congresspeople on programs and issues of importance to the Great Lakes region, including PFAS, the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and the GLRI.

In the House hearing, Ranking Member Chellie Pingree (D-ME) praised the new drinking water standard for PFAS. “This is a very big deal, and it will go a long way in keeping families safe from these harmful chemicals,” she said. “The EPA so far has invested 9 billion to address PFAS and has issued guidance on how to dispose of and destroy it.”

But Pingree also raised concerns about the concentration of PFAS in fertilizers made from sewage sludge, which has rendered farmland unusable in some cases, and asked Regan what the EPA was doing to help farmers and water utilities. “We do not want our farmers, we do not want our water systems, we do not want taxpayers and communities bearing the burden of some of these unfortunate situations,” Regan said. “And so, in terms of our regulations, we are tightening down our regulations in our drinking water to make sure that these forever chemicals are not making it into the bodies of our parents, our children, our grandparents, while also pursuing enforcement action for those who have put these into our environment. At EPA, we've worked really hard to look at our enforcement discretion opportunities there," he stated.

In the Senate hearing, Committee Member and Member of the Great Lakes Task Force Gary Peters (D-MI) also asked Regan about PFAS, and what EPA’s future regulatory plans are for 29 other types of PFAS not covered by the recent drinking water standard. Touting expansion of testing and research under the Unregulated Contaminant Monitoring Rule, Regan said, “we’re beginning to uncover, monitor, detect, and determine some of the health disbenefits of those 29 with an angle or an idea that we would pursue regulation of those in the near future as well.”

Peters then turned his attention to the GLRI. “The Great Lakes are not only in our DNA, they are a critical resource for drinking water, for economic growth, and for job creation,” Peters began. “However, challenges to the Great Lakes, unfortunately, from fluctuating lakes levels, to harmful algal blooms to climate change, aren’t going away and are increasing, so we need to make sure we have full funding for at least the authorized $450 million in the fiscal year 2025 budget,” he stated.  In FY24, Congress appropriated $368 million for the GLRI.

Regan extolled the virtues of the program, highlighting its many “unprecedented” successes, particularly restoration of Areas of Concern. He also spoke on the wider economic value of the program, citing a study that found that each dollar invested in GLRI projects has yielded $3.35 in additional economic activity. “So, I feel really good that the vision of this program is working, that the economic aspect of it, the leveraged dollars are making a lot of sense, and we’ve got a billion dollars in additional resources that we’re going to leverage against that to continue to see the progress that you and others have led,” Regan said to Peters, referencing the $200 million per year from FY2022-26 in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) that has brought total GLRI funding to $568 million for the past two years.

Committee Member Martin Heinrich (D-NM) asked the Administrator about the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, and the three grant programs within it that EPA has recently funded. “We feel really good about the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund, the $20 billion that’s focused on investments for clean technology and the six or seven billion that’s focused on Solar for All,” Regan said, going on to note the immense potential of the investment into these programs. “The program is also designed in a way where we’re leveraging those in the private sector, those in the investment space who know how to leverage capital. This is $27 billion that we think is going to pull hundreds of billions off the sideline,” he concluded.

Heinrich also asked about the Supreme Court’s ruling in Sackett v. EPA, which limited the scope of the Clean Water Act, especially with regard to wetlands. Regan expressed “disappointment” with the “very prescriptive” ruling, but stressed that there are still levers that EPA can pull to protect waterways that are no longer covered. “We are encouraging our states, tribes, and municipalities to use available resources that we have, such as our wetland program development grants, there are some other grants in BIL and IRA that we believe we can couple to fill some of those gaps,” he said.

NEMWI will continue to monitor the appropriations process.



Read NEMWI’s report on the President’s Budget here.

NEMWI Releases Report on the

Impacts of the IIJA

The Northeast-Midwest Institute has released a report this week, highlighting the overall impact of the Infrastructure, Investment, and Jobs Act (IIJA) that was signed into law on November 15, 2021. The report is written by NEMWI Economics Intern Molly Lienemann, a Government/International Affairs, Languages, Literatures and Cultures, and French triple major at Augustana University in Sioux Falls, South Dakota.

The IIJA provides more funding for American infrastructure than ever before, and includes funding for electric vehicles, wildlife help, water infrastructure, and public transportation. The new law has led to the creation of thousands of jobs across various sectors and has proven to be beneficial for many Americans throughout the country.

The newly released NEMWI report includes five sections: reports analyzing the scope and types of infrastructure included in the IIJA bill; reports that assess the progress and pace of its implementation; reports that evaluate the impact on infrastructure in specific sectors such as highways, bridges, etc.; reports that highlight the economic impact of the bill; and reports that provide future recommendations for the IIJA. Twenty articles are included in the report from think tanks and government organizations that have been impacted, either positively or negatively, by the law.

While most of the responses and reports were found to be positive, a few flaws, such as impacts on chemists and engineers, were noted. Regarding the allocation of funds among states and enterprises, the Biden Administration has been successful in being unbiased and nonpartisan. The White House regularly posts updates on specific projects and state grants that the law has funded, which is a great tool for those who are interested in those details.

The IIJA represents a total of $1.2 trillion in new federal spending, with only one-third of this total expended so far. The new law continues through 2026, funding thousands of new projects and infrastructure renovations in the fifty states as well as all of the U.S. territories. The U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate have had very few committee hearings on the allocation of the IIJA funds.

The full report can be found here.

Reported by NEMWI Intern Molly Lienemann, Augustana University

Biden Administration Appoints GLA Co-Chair

The Biden Administration has nominated Matthew Kaplan to lead the Great Lakes Authority (GLA), the White House announced last week. Kaplan is currently a senior attorney at the Natural Resources Defense Council, and worked in the office of Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D-OH), a Co-Chair of the Great Lakes Task Force and champion of the GLA. In Kaptur’s office, Kaplan worked closely on Great Lakes issues with the GLTF, and helped create the GLA. “Matthew Kaplan has a deep knowledge of the Great Lakes region’s economic development, infrastructure and environmental needs, and the opportunities for the newly created Great Lakes Authority,” the White House said in a statement.

Kaplan’s approval by the Senate would allow the GLA, which was authorized in 2022 and appropriated $5 million in FY2024, to begin its work in earnest. The GLA is tasked with the promotion of economic development in the Great Lakes region, and the protection and restoration of the Lakes themselves, and would have authority on par with other regional development commissions, such as the Southeast Regional Development Commission. Kaplan would be one of nine members, with the others appointed by the governors of the eight Great Lakes states

Kaplan’s nomination will now go to the Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works for consideration.

EPA Announces Lead Pipe Investment 

The EPA last week announced the allotment $3 billion in funding towards lead service line removal (LSLR) across the nation. This is part of a total of $15 billion that the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) set aside to deal with LSLR – $3 billion per year from FY2022-FY2026. Since FY2023, the allocation of these funds has been based on an LSL-specific formula developed from the EPA’s 7th Drinking Water Infrastructure Needs Assessment Survey (DWINSA). This is a departure from the first year of IIJA LSLR grants which instead used a formula that took into account all categories of infrastructure need. Additionally, states were given an opportunity late last year to revise their estimates.

Because of these adjustments, the Northeast-Midwest region, and Great Lakes states in particular, received a large share commensurate with their heightened need. Of the $2.865 billion available for states, each state was guaranteed at least 1%, or $28.65 million. Most states received this minimum allocation. By contrast, Illinois received $240 million; Ohio, $184 million; Pennsylvania, $152 million, and; New York, $129 million. In total, Great Lakes states will receive over $1 billion, and 35% of all funding, up from just $586 million and 21% of all funding in FY2022. 

For a full funding breakdown, see the EPA’s memo here. 

Connect With the Northeast-Midwest Institute

on Social Media

The Northeast-Midwest Institute is on social media with new updates and information on its regional research and policy education program and with announcements for upcoming briefings and events. NEMWI is posting our research reports on current regional issues and ongoing policy education on the page to make keeping up with our policy work easier than ever. The Institute also is updating the page with announcements of upcoming policy briefings and webinars. NEMWI is excited for the opportunity to connect with as many people as possible 

Please check out our LinkedIn here, our Twitter/X here, and our Facebook here. Be sure to like and follow us to keep up to date with NEMWI!