Great Lakes Coalition: House Budget a ‘Disaster for Clean Water’

Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition
Contact: Lindsey Bacigal, BacigalL@nwf.org, (734) 887-7113

Great Lakes Coalition: House Budget a ‘Disaster for Clean Water’

ANN ARBOR, MICH. (November 2, 2023)—The full House of Representatives this week is expected to vote on its fiscal year 2024 Interior and Environment funding bill, which guts many core clean water programs and the agency that administers them (the U.S. EPA). The Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition is urging members of Congress to reject the budget bill, as it threatens water quality, jeopardizes public health, and will make projects more expensive by kicking the can down the road. Rather, the Coalition is calling on Congress for a bipartisan commitment to clean water in the Great Lakes and across the nation.

Laura Rubin, director of the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition, said:

“The proposed budget is a disaster for clean water. The budget is bad for our environment, public health, and way of life, and it is a slap in the face to the millions of people in the Great Lakes who still grapple with unsafe drinking water due to toxic pollution and lead, contaminated fish due to cancer-causing chemicals, closed beaches due to sewage contamination, and increased flooding due to climate change. We urge members of the Great Lakes delegation to reject this budget and work to craft one that supports clean water programs that benefit our environment, economy, and communities.

“At a time when so many cities and towns are living with unsafe water, we need to be doing more, not less, to protect our drinking water and the health of our towns and cities. The House budget not only takes us in the wrong direction – it takes us over a cliff.

“House budget cuts will mean communities cannot replace toxic lead pipes that carry drinking water to people’s homes. House budget cuts will mean that the communities that have been most impacted by pollution and environmental harm cannot get the help they need to protect their drinking water and public health. House budget cuts will mean communities will not be able to fix water infrastructure that delivers drinking water to people’s homes and ensures that we prevent sewage from contaminating our waterways. House budget cuts will mean communities will not get help dealing with increased flooding. These cuts will mean less enforcement of our clean water laws and pollution prevention programs that hold polluters accountable and ensure we all have access to clean, safe, and affordable water. We can’t restore the Great Lakes while measures to protect the Great Lakes are gutted.

“Though the bill maintains funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, this is not enough and does not make up for the steep cuts to programs that are helping provide drinking water to families and communities across the nation. Cutting these programs will not save the nation one penny. In fact, they will cost the nation more money by kicking the can down the road, allowing problems to get worse and most costly to solve.” we can’t just restore the GL while measures to protect the GL are gutted

For additional information on the budget, view our funding chart and a summary of topline numbers.

Since 2004, the Healing Our Waters-Great Lakes Coalition has been harnessing the collective power of more than 180 groups representing millions of people, whose common goal is to restore and protect the Great Lakes. Learn more at HealthyLakes.org or follow us on Twitter @HealthyLakes.