Michigan's two U.S. Senators, Carl Levin and Debbie Stabenow, joined five of their Senate colleagues in March in sponsoring bipartisan legislation to increase funding for Great Lakes ecosystem restoration. The Great Lakes Environmental Restoration Act, S. 508, would authorize $6 billion over 10 years for new Great Lakes grants.

"While the Great Lakes made strides after environmental protections were put in place 30 years ago, progress in the last 15 years has been very slow," said Levin. "This legislation would provide the federal commitment of funding and resources to keep pace with the restoration needs of the Great Lakes."

Stabenow said: "As a Michigan senator, I feel a special responsibility to protect the Great Lakes. They are not only a source of clean drinking water for more than 30 million people but are also an integral part of Michigan's heritage and its economy."

"Ultimately, we need to make restoration of the Great Lakes a national priority, similar to what was done for the Florida Everglades, and this legislation moves us in that direction," she said.

The Great Lakes Environmental Restoration Act would:

• Seek to restore the Great Lakes ecosystem. It would authorize up to $600 million annually for 10 years in competitive grants administered by Environmental Protection Agency's (EPA) Great Lakes National Program Office. These grants would be in addition to the existing federal efforts in the Great Lakes.
  
  
• Establish an Advisory Board. The governor-led Great Lakes Environmental Restoration Advisory Board would be comprised of Great Lakes governors, mayors and local officials and federal agencies, along with Native American tribes, environmentalists, industry representatives and Canadian observers.
  
  
• Step up Great Lakes monitoring. The Great Lakes National Program Office, in coordination with other federal agencies and Canada, would develop indicators of water quality and related environmental factors in the Great Lakes, as well as a network to monitor those indicators regularly throughout the Great Lakes basin. The Program Office would report to Congress on the changes in water quality after initial benchmark data is collected within four years and again every two years thereafter.
  
  Senator Mike DeWine, R-Ohio, introduced the Great Lakes Environmental Restoration Act. DeWine and Levin are co-chairs of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force. Other original co-sponsors include Senators Evan Bayh, D-Ind., Richard Lugar, R-Ind., Herb Kohl, D-Wisc., and Mark Dayton, D-Minn.
  
  Michigan co-sponsors of a similar bill (H.R. 792) introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives include Republicans Dave Camp, Peter Hoekstra, Thaddeus McCotter and Mike Rogers and Democrats John Dingell, Dale Kildee, Carolyn Kilpatrick, Sander Levin and Bart Stupak.