Blake Moore: “Let me thank the committee for supporting me in my very important amendments last evening, and I have another very…”

“Let me thank the committee for supporting me in my very important amendments last evening, and I have another very important amendment that is before the committee here today. Mr. Chair, I urge support for my amendment that would prevent the administration from dismantling the EPA's Great Lakes Advisory Board. I am so pleased that this bill has again rejected the President's proposal to gut the GLRI, and this amendment would prevent them from dismantling the advisory board. Mr. Chairman, this is a critical matter for anyone who drinks water. The Great Lakes provide drinking water to some 40 million people. Let me say that again. Forty million people depend on this resource for one of life's basic requirements, water, not to mention anglers and recreation. As an old African proverb goes, water has no enemies. So, hopefully, the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is something that we are going to recognize as having played a critical role in protecting and restoring one of America's greatest national treasures, a life- sustaining element, water. Just to mention, not to bore people with a lot of statistics, but the Great Lakes contain about 21 percent of the world's surface freshwater and more than 80 percent, 85 percent, of the freshwater in North America. This is indispensable. As critical as this funding is, it is also important that the EPA receive advice and input from local stakeholders regarding priorities under that program.…”