| Northeast-Midwest Institute Weekly Update |
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Reminder: Asian Carp Awareness Symposium (March 6) and Great Lakes Congressional Breakfast (March 7)
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Asian Carp Awareness Symposium | Wednesday, March 6, 2013 | 3:30-5 p.m. | Capitol Visitor's Center, Congressional Meeting Room South (CVC-217)
Co-chairs of the NEMW Congressional and Senate Coalitions, the Mississippi River Caucus, the House Great Lakes Task Force, and the Upper Mississippi River Task Force are helping lead a symposium to highlight the ecological and economic impacts of Asian carp, as well as actions that have been taken to combat their threat to, the Mississippi, Ohio, and Missouri Rivers and Great Lakes Basin watersheds. The symposium will involve all of the impacted basins from Louisiana, north to Minnesota and Wisconsin, and east to New York. State agency representatives from the regions will be on hand to answer questions as well as give their thoughts on the efforts to combat Asian carp. Northeast-Midwest Coalition Co-Chair Rep. Mike Kelly (PA-03) and Coalition Member Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04) are scheduled to give remarks.
Great Lakes Congressional Breakfast | Thursday, March 7, 2013 | 8:15-9:45 a.m. | Capitol Visitor's Center, SVC-210-12
The annual breakfast is a valuable opportunity to interact and connect with Great Lakes leaders and stakeholders, while hearing from multiple Congressional members on their priorities and outlook moving forward. Congressional Members scheduled to speak include: Great Lakes Task Force Co-Chairs Sen. Carl Levin (MI) and Rep. Sean Duffy (WI-07); Great Lakes Task Force Members Rep. Dan Benishek (MI-01), Rep. David Joyce (OH-14), Rep. Bill Huizenga (MI-02), and Rep. Brad Schneider (IL-10); and Great Lakes delegation members Rep. Chris Collins (NY-27) and Rep. Dan Kildee (MI-05).
For more information, contact Kate Ostrander, Legislative Director for the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition or Danielle Chesky, Director, Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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Great Lakes Hill Happenings - February 2013
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The February edition of the Great Lakes Hill Happenings covers a busy January and February at the beginning of the 113th Congress. Items reported on and linked include:
- The Northeast-Midwest Institute Board meeting and reception on Capitol Hill on February 5;
- The annual Great Lakes Environmental Summit, held February 6;
- A briefing on February 12, for which the Great Lakes Task Force co-chairs were honorary co-sponsors, on the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative history, future, and impacts;
- Legislative updates on the Superstorm Sandy appropriations, and bills introduced to require full dedication of the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund collections for harbor maintenance and to implement federal agency attention and cooperation in preventing the spread of Asian carp in the Mississippi River and Ohio River basins;
- Congressional letters sent to the administration requesting full support from the Harbor Maintenance Trust Fund for harbor maintenance and operations;
- Upcoming events, including the Asian Carp Awareness Symposium (March 6) and the Great Lakes Congressional Breakfast (March 7).
For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program, Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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OMB Releases Sequestration Report to Congress
| Last Friday, the official sequester order went into effect, canceling $85.3 billion in FY2013 spending. The order requires an across-the-board cut to almost every program, project, and activity, including 7.8 percent reduction in non-exempt defense discretionary funding, 5.0 percent reduction in non-exempt nondefense discretionary funding, 2.0 percent reduction to Medicare, 5.1 percent to other non-exempt nondefense mandatory programs, and 7.9 percent to non-exempt defense mandatory programs. Because work on FY2013 remains unfinished, the full impact of the cuts on the NEMW region is unknown; however, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) estimates that the sequester will reduce gross domestic product by over half a point (0.6) in 2013, the reported equivalent of about 750,000 full-time jobs. Many federal employees are facing furlough, including National Guard and Reserve technicians; three NEMW states (OH, PA, and NY) are among the top five military technician employing states, and thus likely to see disproportionate impact. NEMW's several watersheds will see funding cuts causing delays in critical clean-up projects. A critical low income program which disproportionally benefits the NEMW, the Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP), unlike other low-income programs, was not exempt. Further, the NEMW's manufacturing sector faces potential delays and cancellations of critical innovation projects that the federal government supports to keep the region and country competitive. OBM's report to Congress is available here.
For more information, contact Kate Ostrander, Legislative Director for the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition
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Environmental Law Institute Produces New Guide for Local Elected Officials on Wind Energy
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The Environmental Law Institute published a brief guide to aid local officials in understanding commercial-scale wind siting: "Siting Wind Energy Facilities - What Do Local Elected Officials Need to Know?" Local government officials presented with potential wind energy projects in their municipalities often find it difficult to locate clear and concise answers to their citizens' concerns. This publication seeks to give local elected officials, in a few paragraphs on each topic, the information they need to sort fact from fiction and get a sense of how states and other municipalities have addressed key issues. Topics discussed include wind facility location, site safety and security, setbacks from property lines and buildings, shadow flicker, electromagnetic interference, decommissioning, and visual, sound, road and wildlife impacts.
For more information, contact Colleen Cain, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
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