Coalition and Others to Appropriators Regarding the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative

To: The Honorable Jack Reed
Chairperson
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations
SD-131 Dirksen Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

The Honorable Lisa Murkowski
Ranking Member
Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations
SH-125 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, DC 20510

From: The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition
And the undersigned environmental non-governmental organizations

Dear Chairperson Reed and Ranking Member Murkowski:

We, the members of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, ask that you provide $475 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) in Fiscal Year 2012. The GLRI – and you – have provided the Great Lakes region with much needed support, and we are seeing on-the-ground results. However, while pressures on Congress to balance the U.S. budget will not diminish, neither will the problems facing the Great Lakes. If we wait and allow restoration efforts to slow, these serious problems will only get worse and the price we pay will be much higher…