NEMWI New Logo Lg File

W E E K L Y     U P D A T E   September 10, 2015
In This Issue

Join Our Mailing List


QUICK LINKS 
 
This Week on Capitol Hill
 
Congress is back in session after spending the last month in their respective states and districts. Many agenda items must be wrapped up within the next two months, including decisions on government spending through appropriations bills, overall budget negotiations, and the Highway Bill.
  • All current signs point to a "continuing resolution," whereby the government continues current year spending with or without policy riders, for at least a few months, so that the government does not shut down when the current fiscal year expires September 30.
  • Further talks on spending will depend on budget negotiations to remove or revamp sequestration, an across-the-board cut Congress enacted to force spending negotiations. Previous negotiations alleviated the cut in FY2014 and FY2015, but no such deal has yet to be reached for FY2016.
  • Prior to leaving for the August break, the Senate passed a long-term Highway Bill. The House is developing its own bill, which will then go to conference with the Senate. Authorization for the Highway Trust Fund expires at the end of October.
For more information, please contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program or Mark Gorman, Policy Analyst, both at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
  
Great Lakes Leaders
Circulating Letter to Support
Restoration in FY2017    
 
The Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition's Great Lakes Task Force leaders and members are circulating a letter, requesting that the Obama Administration provide funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI). Led by Reps. Sander Levin (MI), David Joyce (OH), and Louise Slaughter (NY), the letter calls for the administration to provide $300 million for the GLRI program in FY2017. The letter notes the many projects and work funded through the GLRI program to clean up legacy Areas of Concern, and that more work remains to be done. The Congressional delegation has shown consistent, bipartisan support for the GLRI program, annually funding the program at $300 million.

For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program
at the Northeast-Midwest Institute. 
  
NEMWI's Great Ships Initiative Hosts Tests of Ballast Water Compliance Tools

From September 1-4, 2015, NEMWI's Great Ships Initiative (GSI) ballast water testing facility in Superior, WI helped the Navy Research Laboratory (NRL) and the Alliance for Coastal Technologies (ACT) test emerging ballast water compliance tools in the natural freshwater of the Great Lakes. Dr. Euan Reavie, the lead phytoplankton expert of the GSI project and a researcher at the University of Minnesota Natural Resources Research Institute, led the GSI-based research session focused on handheld fluorescence tools designed to detect live organisms in the smaller (10 um to 50 um) of two USCG regulatory size class. Over the course of four days, the GSI team microscopically analyzed samples also subject to analysis with the florescence instruments, both under intensive Quality Assurance/Quality Control (QA/QC) measures, to help validate the instruments for fresh water use. The United States government, states, and international entities require ships to limit discharges of live organisms in ballast water, but reliable and feasible means of detecting compliance remains a challenge. 
 
For more information, contact Allegra Cangelosi , Sr. Policy Analyst, Environmental Projects and Director, Great Ships Initiative or Timothy Serre, GSI Logistics and Facilities Manager, both at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
 
Waters of the United States Rule
 
North Dakota U.S. District Court Judge Ralph Erickson declined last Friday to extend nationwide his August 27 injunction blocking the Waters of the United States (WOTUS) rule implementation in thirteen states. The Judge had earlier called for briefs ("addressing the issue of whether the injunction applies nationally or in a limited geographic area") after the Environmental Protection Agency indicated that it intended to interpret his August 27 injunction narrowly and apply the new rule elsewhere across the country. Lawyers representing 13 states filed a brief contending that the contentious rule should be blocked from being implemented in all U.S. states, while Obama administration lawyers argued in a second brief  that the rule should apply nationwide, except within the13 states. In addition to the two main parties, the BCCA Appeal Group, a non-profit Texas corporation, filed an amicus brief  with the Court, arguing on behalf of blocking the rule's implementation nationwide.
 
Other recent WOTUS news includes a lawsuit filed in the California Northern U.S. District Court against the EPA and Army Corps of Engineers by several environmental organizations that contend that the rule is not protective enough, and several requests by agriculture industry groups and lawmakers to delay the rule's implementation until pending legal issues are resolved. The farm organizations include the National Milk Producers Federation and National Pork Producers Council . Next up - a United States Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation is  set to hear arguments  on the EPA's request to consolidate the numerous WOTUS lawsuits at an October 1 hearing in New York City.
 
For more information, contact  Mark Gorman , Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.
  
Call for Session Ideas:
Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop 2016
 
The Brownfield Coalition of the Northeast will host the Northeast Sustainable Communities Workshop 2016 at the New Jersey Institute of Technology in Newark, New Jersey on March 16, 2016. The workshop's goals are to break new ground, offer new ideas, and posit new concepts on the topics of sustainability, collaboration and leverage, contamination, resiliency, brownfields, technology, and their impact on community revitalization. The 2016 theme is "Imagination and Creativity in Urban Change for the NJ/NY/CT/PA Metropolitan Area."

The Coalition is issuing a call for ideas on topics related to sustainability. Submissions may address either broad or niche areas; research projects or case studies; management and policy challenges; and local, regional, or national issues. The Call for Ideas is open until September 21, 2015 at 11:59 PM ET. More details are available
here .

For more information, contact Colleen Cain
, Sr. Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute. 
  

NEMWI: Strengthening the Region that Sustains the Nation