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WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) took to the Senate floor today to continue speaking out against the President’s budget blueprint, which completely eliminates the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). 

For the floor speech, Brown took with him a photo of the Great Lakes with a massive algae bloom. In 2014, a bloom left the Greater Toledo area without safe drinking water. Brown referenced the photo saying: “Algal blooms leave our lake looking like this. Would you want to fish here? Would you take your children out on water that looks like this? Does this water look like what you want coming out of your faucet?

“Taking an ax to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative will cost Ohio jobs and jeopardize public health. It would put our drinking water at risk, and reverse all the progress we’ve made. This is unacceptable, and I will fight like hell to protect Lake Erie and the entire Great Lakes,” Brown continued. 

Brown has worked to strengthen the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative – a highly successful program that has targeted the most significant problems in the region and jumpstarted restoration efforts to protect, maintain, and restore the chemical, biological, and physical integrity of the Great Lakes. Last Congress, Brown cosponsored the Great Lakes Ecological and Economic Protection Act of 2015 (GLEEPA) – a bill would reauthorize the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and codify the program into statute. In December Brown successfully fought to include authorization for GLRI in the Senate water bill.

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