Roskam, Lipinski Succeed in Protecting Local Economy and Environment

Statement

Today, Congressman Peter Roskam (IL-06) released the following statement after blocking an attempt to add language to last week's federal spending bill that would potentially cut Chicagoland waterways off from Lake Michigan in an effort to prevent the spread of Asian Carp. Roskam and Congressman Dan Lipinski (D-IL) led a bipartisan letter to Speaker Boehner highlighting the costly economic and environmental impact of this proposal. As a result, this language was omitted from the final version of the bill.

"We must continue to fight the spread of Asian Carp into Lake Michigan, which threatens our waterways and the health of our Great Lakes," said Roskam. "However, some Members in Congress attempted to slip language into the federal spending bill that would restrict commercial barge traffic through Illinois' waterways, which would do long-term damage to our local economy and environment. Fortunately, Congressman Lipinski and I were able to successfully block this harmful proposal and ensure our waterways stay up and running. Asian Carp are a real threat to our ecosystem, but we should ensure that measures to stem the tide of this invasive species are vetted, effective, and not detrimental to our local economy."

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