The Biden Administration’s proposed budget, released today, cuts the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, boosts funding to reduce lead in drinking water, maintains funding for the nation’s primary water infrastructure loan programs, and increases the EPA’s budget to confront climate change and address environmental injustices.

The federal budget released today for this year is a mixed bag as it pertains to programs to address urgent threats to drinking water and the Great Lakes that impact millions of people in the eight Great Lakes states of Illinois, Indiana, Michigan, Minnesota, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Wisconsin.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is applauding the EPA’s plan to collaborate with states, tribes and local officials to ensure that historic federal investments to fix drinking water and wastewater infrastructure reach communities most impacted by pollution. The plan, released today, provides guidance on how more than $40 billion in federal funding will be spent as part of the bipartisan infrastructure law, known as the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Coalition meetings with D.C. lawmakers come as Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report underscores need to take aggressive action to confront climate crisis.

The Biden Administration’s plan to invest an additional $1 billion to clean up toxic pollution in the Great Lakes region, announced today, will be essential to restore the Great Lakes and to protect the drinking water, public health, and jobs of millions of people in the region.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is urging U.S. representatives to fully fund controls to prevent invasive carp from entering the Great Lakes and causing environmental and economic harm.

The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition supports the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers proposed rule to strengthen clean water protections essential to the health of communities and the Great Lakes. The agencies are proposing a rule that will determine the level of protections for several classifications of streams and wetlands.

On January 14, members of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition alongside many of its partners across the country sent two letters (seen below) to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to provide input regarding implementation of new State Revolving Fund (SRF) funding through the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act of 2021.