Peters Secures and Helps Advance Federal Funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, Great Lakes Center of Expertise and a New Great Lakes Icebreaker

WASHINGTON, DC – U.S. Senator Gary Peters (MI) secured federal funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), Great Lakes Center of Expertise and for a new Great Lakes Icebreaker while helping the Senate Appropriations Committee pass the bipartisan Fiscal Year 2024 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act and the Fiscal Year 2024 Homeland Security Appropriations Act. The legislation, which includes $373 million in GLRI funding, continued support for the U.S. Coast Guard National Center of Expertise for the Great Lakes based in Sault Ste. Marie and $55 million for a new Great Lakes icebreaker, now advances to the full Senate as Peters continues to work with his Senate colleagues on legislation to fund the federal government.

The House of Representatives, meanwhile, is considering their own funding bills. The Senate and House will then need to reach an agreement on a final funding bill and have it pass both chambers before being sent to the President to be signed into law.  

“The Great Lakes are part of who we are as Michiganders and critical for clean drinking water, our way of life and economy,” said Senator Peters. “After pushing for funding, I’m pleased this bipartisan legislation includes resources to protect and restore the Great Lakes through the GLRI program, acquire a new Great Lakes icebreaker and continue efforts to make sure we are better prepared against any potential oil spill in freshwater environments.”

Securing this funding builds on Peters’ longtime efforts to support the Great Lakes.

Peters has championed support for the GLRI. Earlier this year, Peters advocated for continued support for the GLRI during a hearing in the Senate Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee. Peters helped enact the single-largest-ever investment in the GLRI through the bipartisan infrastructure law to accelerate the restoration of nine high-priority areas in Michigan whose lakes, rivers and watersheds flow into the Great Lakes. In 2020, Peters authored the law to reauthorize and expand the GLRI. In 2019, Peters secured a bipartisan provision that was signed into law to provide the first increase in GLRI support in a decade.

In addition to protecting the Great Lakes through GLRI, Peters led the charge to create the U.S. Coast Guard National Center of Expertise in Michigan. In August 2022, Peters helped cut the ribbon at the Center of Expertise to study the impacts of oil spills in freshwater environments and develop effective responses. This came after Peters authored and passed legislation into law to establish the Center. In 2019, he secured the funding to kickstart the project and later worked to ensure the Center would be headquartered in Michigan. Today, thanks to Peters efforts, the Center is housed in two Michigan locations: the Great Lakes Environmental Research Laboratory in Ann Arbor and Lake Superior State University in Sault Ste. Marie. To ensure the Center can continue to effectively carry out its work, Peters highlighted the need for additional federal support earlier this year at a Senate Appropriations Homeland Security Subcommittee hearing.

Peters has pressed for funding to secure a new icebreaker for the Great Lakes, which would have broad positive implications on the regional economy, international commerce, jobs and infrastructure by ensuring the continued safe and efficient commerce year-round, including during the winter months. Icebreaking in the Great Lakes is critical not just for Michigan’s economy – but for our entire country. Icebreaking capacity in the Great Lakes supports more than 90 million tons of cargo annually. Unfortunately, the U.S. Coast Guard icebreaking fleet has shrunk from 14 ships in 1979 to nine ships and inadequate icebreaking poses a significant risk to our economy. As an example, businesses dependent upon the Great Lakes maritime industry lost over $1 billion in revenues across the 2018-2019 ice-season due to delays caused by insufficient icebreaking, which resulted in the loss of over 5,000 jobs throughout the Great Lakes Region. In 2018, another $1 billion and 5,000 more jobs were lost due to inadequate icebreaking on the Great Lakes. Additionally, the State of Michigan experienced catastrophic flooding in February 2021 along the St. Clair River due to a massive ice jam. Unfortunately, the Great Lakes’ sole heavy icebreaker, the USS Mackinaw, was unavailable to assist and the smaller Coast Guard and Canadian icebreakers were not capable of relieving the ice jam, so the flooding persisted for weeks. This is nearly an annual disaster and it has become worse with a changing climate and high lake levels. Additional heavy icebreakers would provide the capacity need to prevent ice jam flooding damage to shoreline communities, while also supporting maritime commerce throughout the Great Lakes region.

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