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The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI): A Driver for the Region's Prosperity through Economic, Environmental, and Societal Revitalization
Please join the Northeast-Midwest Institute (NEMWI), along with the Great Lakes Commission, the Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition, the International Association for Great Lakes Research (IAGLR), and other Great Lakes Stakeholders for a Congressional briefing on the successes of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) and the continued need for federal support to clean up the Great Lakes.
Thursday, September 19, 2019
Congressional Visitor Center
SVC 203-02
10:00 a.m. - 11:30 a.m.
Participants:
· Introduction and Overview of the GLRI - NEMWI's Great Lakes Washington Program
· Assessing the Investment: the Economic Impact of the GLRI - Great Lakes Commission
· Areas of Concern (AOC) Clean-up and Economic Revitalization - IAGLR
· Boots on the Ground: Community Revitalization Through AOC Cleanup Efforts - TBD
· The Need for the GLRI Act of 2019 - Healing Our Waters Great Lakes Coalition
The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) has been a critical federal program in advancing and growing the Great Lakes region's economy. Investments through the GLRI have helped create jobs and have led to long-term economic benefits for the Great Lakes states and the country. A report completed last fall from economists at the University of Michigan, Central Michigan University, and Duke University highlighted and quantified the economic prosperity that the GLRI is creating in the region. The study showed that for every $1 the GLRI invested in restoration funding, more than $3 in additional economic activity was generated region-wide. Another newly released report by the International Association of Great Lakes Research (IAGLR) found that major positive communal and economic benefits have been achieved through the cleanup of the most toxic and polluted sites in the Great Lakes.
The briefing will not only focus on the GLRI's success stories, but also discuss the continued need for increased federal support for the Great Lakes. This summer, bipartisan and bicameral legislation (S. 2295 and H.R. 4031) was introduced in Congress that would reauthorize the GLRI for five years starting in FY 2022 at $375 million and increase the authorized amount by $25 million each year through FY 2026. The briefing will provide an overview of the continued resources needed in the Great Lakes to continue the progress being made, which would be supported by the GLRI Act of 2019.
To RSVP please email Matt McKenna with the Northeast-Midwest Institute at
mmckenna@nemw.org.
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Congress is Back in Session with a Packed Schedule, but Potential Government Shutdown Looms Large
The House and Senate are back from their respective August recesses today, and both chambers are returning to a full slate of legislative priorities, including possible gun control legislation, ratification of NAFTA 2.0, and the U.S. - China trade war. One of the more pressing issues, though, is that the federal government runs out of authorized money at the end of the month.
While the House has
passed the majority of their appropriation bills, the Senate has failed to pass or even introduce any thus far. In light of this, the House is
expected to quickly pass a stopgap spending bill to fund the government through November until a full spending package is passed. It is unclear, however, if the Senate would support such a measure.
One seemingly never-ending appropriations point of contention is the lack of funding for President Trump's desired border wall between the U.S. and Mexico. Democrats are not supporting it, and it is unclear if Republicans will hold a functioning government hostage in exchange for supporting such a deeply unpopular political priority of such a deeply unpopular president. Meanwhile, the Department of Defense at the direction of the Trump Administration is attempting to reallocate funding from a number of military construction projects to the border wall. This move will likely be challenged in the courts by Democrats, but resolution will probably come after the appropriations fight has come to a conclusion.
If legislators cannot find some middle ground, the federal government is headed towards another government shutdown. Last December, the government suffered its longest shutdown in the history of the United States. For 35 days, large swaths of the federal apparatus ground to a halt while federal employees waited in
food lines.
For more information,
please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute
.
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Buttigieg, Other Democratic Presidential Candidates Advocate for Paying Farmers to Adapt to Climate Change
Mayor Pete Buttigieg, Sen. Cory Booker, and Sen. Amy Klobuchar were recently asked during campaign events in Iowa how they planned to help farmers deal with the impacts of climate change. According to Politico, the trio of presidential hopefuls discussed their plans to invest billions of dollars into conservation programs that would pay farmers to implement various conservation practices, like planting cover crops. These practices can improve soil health, reduce agricultural runoff, and mitigate carbon emissions.
According to Buttigieg,"rural Americans can be a huge part of the solution. To me, the quest for a net zero emissions cattle farm is one of the most exciting things we might undertake. It can be done right now, but it's unaffordable. To make it pencil out, we need to change the economics. It means federal investment." For more information, please contact Eric Heath, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
For more information,
please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute
.
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FDIC Concerned with Increasing Number of Farmers Behind on Loans
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation has warned that the number of long past-due increased markedly over the last year. The measure is up 13 basis points from the same period in 2018. The ratio represents the ratio of farm loans that are at least 90 days past due or that no longer accrue interest because of repayment doubts.
This uptick in agriculture debt concerns comes in the midst of the ongoing trade tensions between the U.S. and China where commodities like soybeans - the U.S.'s largest agricultural export - have been primary targets of Chinese retaliation. China is the number one consumer of U.S. soybean exports.
With farmers suffering from drastically reduced sales and lower prices when they do manage to sell their goods, increased loan defaults is the only logical conclusion. Meanwhile, trade talks between the two global economic superpowers have led to no progress and only increased tensions, with President Trump imposing tariffs on even more Chinese goods on September 1st. China predictably retaliated in kind. There is little question that China will continue to retaliate if the Trump administration imposes their next round of planned tariffs on Chinese goods on December 15th. Meanwhile, farmers will continue to suffer.
For more information,
please contact
Eric Heath
, Senior Policy Counsel for the Mississippi River Basin Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute
.
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NEMWI: Strengthening the Region that Sustains the Nation
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