Issues
Environment Clean Water
No matter who we are, where we are,
or what we do, we depend on clean water for our health and
well-being. With over 15,000 lakes in our state, Wisconsinites
know how important water is. That is why we must do our part
to conserve and protect this vital resource.
Clean Lakes
The Great
Lakes are an invaluable resource for Wisconsin and the
country as a whole, and I have long supported efforts to protect
and revitalize them. The importance of these lakes to those
who depend on them for agriculture, industry, and recreation
cannot be overstated.
I am an original cosponsor of S.
2912, the Great Lakes Coordination and Oversight Act of
2006, which would make the Great Lakes Regional Collaboration
(GLRC) and the Great Lakes Interagency Task Force permanent.
Both entities were created by the President in 2004 in order
to better coordinate efforts to restore the ecology of the
Great Lakes Basin. I am pleased that on May 23, 2006, S. 2912
was reported favorably by the Senate Environment and Public
Works Committee and is now awaiting consideration by the full
Senate.
On December 12, 2005, the GLRC released
a comprehensive strategic action plan to restore the Great
Lakes. Developed in consultation with more than 1,500 stakeholders,
the plan provides lawmakers with a good framework within which
to craft policy to revitalize the Great Lakes ecosystem. Following
up on the plan’s recommendations, on April 7, 2006,
in a letter to the Chairman and Ranking member of the Senate
Committee on Appropriations’ Subcommittee on Interior
and Related Agencies, I requested $49.6 million – a
$20 million increase over the current level – for the
Great Lakes Legacy Act for fiscal year 2007.
Clean Water
Two Supreme Court decisions in the last
five years have undermined the ability of the federal government
to protect the nation’s streams, ponds and wetlands
under the Clean Water Act, putting more and more of the nation’s
valuable resources at risk of being polluted by toxic waste
and sewage. These decisions directly affect the safety of
our drinking water, habitats for endangered wildlife and fragile
ecosystems around the country.
Congress should reaffirm the original intent of the Clean
Water Act. The Clean
Water Authority Restoration Act, which I have introduced,
ends the legal wrangling about what Congress meant when it
passed that landmark law in 1972. This bill re-establishes
protection for all waters historically covered by the Clean
Water Act. It also makes clear that Congress’s primary
concern in 1972 was to protect the nation's waters from pollution,
rather than just sustain the navigability of waterways, and
it reinforces that original intent.
Clean
Lakes and Clean Water | Clean
Air | Protecting
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