Coalition and Others to Senate 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 $300 million for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI) in Fiscal Year 2014. The GLRI – and you – have provided the Great Lakes region with much-needed support, and we are seeing on-the-ground results in Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Wisconsin. However, while pressures on Congress to balance the U.S. budget will not diminish, neither will the urgent problems facing the Great Lakes. If we cut restoration funds, these serious problems will only get worse and the price we pay will be much higher…