The Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition enthusiastically welcomed Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) as Co-Chair at the start of the 113th Congress. Rep. Kelly assumes the reins from Rep. Steve LaTourette, who announced his retirement from Congress earlier this year. Rep. Kelly will join with current Co-Chair Rep. Jim McGovern (D-MA) in leading the Coalition. Rep. McGovern said, "I'm very pleased that Mike Kelly will serve as Co-Chair of the NEMW Coalition. We have a lot of challenges as a region and as a nation, and I look forward to working with Mike to address those challenges." Rep. Kelly is similarly looking forward to his new role: "It will be an honor to serve with my co-chair, Representative McGovern, to find common-sense, bipartisan solutions to best serve our constituents, our region, and our great nation." The Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition is a bipartisan Member organization that works collaboratively to enhance and sustain the economic and environmental health of the 18-state region.

For more information, contact  Kate Ostrander, Legislative Director of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.

Mayors along the Mississippi River signed onto an op-ed coordinated by NEMWI's Mississippi River Cities & Towns initiative calling for increased investment in disaster mitigation and prevention. The piece was published by Roll Call on December 14. Read the entire editorial as it appeared here.  

For more information, contact Colin Wellenkamp, Director of the MS River Cities and Towns Initiative at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.

This Note to the Coalitions focuses on two leading threats to children's health, both of which can be exacerbated by environmental conditions in older industrial cities. Specifically, it describes the prevalence of asthma and lead poisoning among children in NEMW states, explains connections between cities and these health threats, and discusses Congressional action to address these problems. According to the report, many NEMW states have asthma prevalence rates higher than the national rate. Additionally, sources of lead exposure, especially a concentration of older housing, are more common in the NEMW region than in other regions. On the upside, in 2010, NEMW states tested a greater percentage of children for blood lead levels than the percentage tested in the U.S. overall. Lawmakers in the 112th Congress introduced a number of bills to address the prevention or treatment of asthma and/or lead poisoning. Despite progress in managing asthma and preventing lead poisoning, these health problems combined still affect millions of U.S. children every year; as such, they should remain a policy priority for the 113th Congress.

For more information, contact Colleen Cain, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute, or Kate Ostrander, Legislative Director of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional Coalition.

Forty Senators and 101 Representatives came together to reiterate their support to return the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) closer to its recent, higher levels.  NEMW Co-Chair Sen. Olympia Snowe and NEMW Member Sen. Jack Reed, and in the House, NEMW Co-Chair Rep. Jim McGovern and NEMW Members Reps. Ed Markey and Peter Welch, along with Reps. Pete King, Jim Gerlach, and Lou Barletta led these bipartisan letters to President Obama, urging that in his FY14 request, LIHEAP be requested at least at the FY11 level of $4.7 billion.  LIHEAP is an important program for the wintry and populous region; in FY12, NEMW states received nearly 60% of LIHEAP funding.  However, in recent years the program has seen a decline of 32% since 2010 to $3.47 billion in FY12, while the demand for the program continues to exceed those receiving assistance. 

For more information, contact  Kate Ostrander or  Mike Gaffin, Legislative Directors of the Northeast-Midwest Congressional and Senate Coalitions, respectively.

On December 6, the Northeast-Midwest Institute, in coordination with Senator Carper and the House Delaware River Basin Task, sponsored a bicameral briefing on the economic importance of the ecological goods and services of the Delaware River Basin ecosystem.  The briefing was designed to provide more information about the economic benefits of conservation as it relates to proposed legislation, the Delaware River Basin Conservation Act (H.R. 2325 and S. 1266). Topics included: the legislative background and the grass-roots support for the bill; the economic value and role of ecosystems in providing benefits (for example, wetlands reduce flooding impacts); and a focus on why this conservation program is valuable from a business perspective. Speakers included: Dr. Gerald Kauffman, Project Director, University of Delaware; Rachel Dawson, Legislative Representative, The National Wildlife Federation; and Michael Parr, Senior Government Affairs Manager, DuPont. A summary of the briefing and the presentations can be found here.

For more information, contact Erik Hagen, Senior Policy Analyst at the Northeast-Midwest Institute. 

Researchers at the University of Michigan have published a map noting the environmental stressors within the five Great Lakes. The map was developed by a bi-national team of academics and environmental organizations known as the Great Lakes Environmental Assessment and Mapping project. The team used federal, state and local data sources and assessed 34 stressors. The researchers noted the potential utility of the map to focus restoration projects. The press release can be viewed here.

For more information, contact Danielle Chesky, Director of the Great Lakes Washington Program at the Northeast-Midwest Institute.