On Friday, December 5, 2014, NEMWI's Great Lakes Washington Program hosted a Capitol Hill briefing on the status of the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence River Basin Water Resources Compact (Compact). The 110th Congress ratified the Compact to protect Great Lakes water from being overdrawn to the point of negatively affecting the livelihoods and environment of the region. The Compact provides a system for review of proposed water withdrawals, with an approval process involving all eight Great Lakes states. A request for water withdrawal by the City of Waukesha, Wisconsin attracted renewed attention to the Compact process, and primarily, who does or does not have access to Great Lakes water.

 

Peter Annin, Managing Director of the Environmental Change Initiative at the University of Notre Dame and author of The Great Lakes Water Wars, placed the Great Lakes water diversion debate into historical, global and continental context. David Naftzger, Executive Director of the Council of Great Lakes Governors, described the comprehensive development, implementation, and ongoing review of the Compact within the states, and the role of the U.S. Congress during ratification and now. In regards to the specific Waukesha application, he explained that the state of Wisconsin will first review the City of Waukesha's request for water withdrawal. If the request is deemed "approvable" by the state, the other Great Lakes Governors, as well as the two Canadian Premiers of Ontario and Quebec in an advisory role, will review the case and determine if the requested withdrawal is consistent with the Compact.

 

Senate Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Sens. Carl Levin (MI) and Mark Kirk (IL), Senate Vice-Chairs Sens. Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Rob Portman (OH), and House Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Reps. Candice Miller (MI-10), John Dingell (MI-12), Sean Duffy (WI-07), and Louise Slaughter (NY-25) served as honorary co-sponsors of the briefing. 

 

For more information contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.  

This week, the last one planned in the 113th Congress, the House and Senate will consider multiple pieces of regionally-important legislation. One major piece is the so-called "cromnibus," a bill with attributes of both a Continuing Resolution (CR) and an Omnibus (see NEMWI fact sheet on Congress' CR and Omnibus options). The bill will address federal spending for the rest of FY2015 for all of the federal government except for the Department of Homeland Security (DHS); the bill will fund DHS until sometime in early 2015. Important budget items for the NEMW region are: Great Lakes Restoration Initiative; Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program; Manufacturing Extension Partnership; and State Revolving Funds for Clean Water and Drinking Water. NEMWI developed a quick overview of the "cromnibus" and other regionally-important legislation, such as the U.S. Coast Guard Reauthorization and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative bills that Congress will vote on this week.

 

For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program, or Colleen Cain, Senior Policy Analyst, both at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.  

 

LIHEAP is the main federal program that provides financial assistance to low-income households for home heating and cooling expenses. It is an important program for the densely-populated and wintry NEMW region, which received approximately 60% of program funds in recent years. LIHEAP funding has declined by $1.7 billion since FY2010, even though energy costs have remained high. 

 

For more information contact Colleen Cain, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, or Sam Breene, Legislative Director of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.  

• Unity, Maine
• Canton, New York
• Youngstown, Ohio
• Allentown, Pennsylvania (through the Rodale Institute)
• Forest County, Pennsylvania
• Loyal, Wisconsin

More information on each community's planned efforts is available here.

For more information contact Colleen Cain, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.