I serve on the Great Lakes Commission as a member from Minnesota along with Commissioner John Stine of the MPCA (our Vice-Chairman and the head of the MN delegation) and Senator Carrie Ruud and Representatives Jennifer Schultz and Paul Torkelson. We meet officially twice a year and work on proposals and receive updates on projects at that those meetings which guide the Commission staff throughout the year on various projects.

Commissioner Stine, Representative Schultz and I were in Washington, D.C. this week for the semi-annual meeting and “Great Lakes Days,” which is also supported by any number of non-profit organizations that focus on the environmental and economic health of the Great Lakes basin. Senator Ruud and Rep. Torkelson chose not to attend, and indeed it was a busy week for the majority party as we approached another deadline. (I wished I could have been here to vote on the reinsurance bill in the Senate on Wednesday night. I would have supported the MN-Care amendment and, upon its failure, voted against the bill. I see no public policy mandate or purpose in sending hundreds of millions of dollars to the insurance industry when there are few, if any, obligations that they take care of Minnesotans).

... The disappointment is the Trump budget, which reduced the GLRI (Great Lakes Restoration Initiative) funding from $300 million to zero, with an accompanying comment that announced that these cleanup projects supported by the GLRI were a state and local responsibility and not that of the federal government’s.