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Task force shows bi-partisanship alive and working

In these days where one politician seems to only want to “show up” another, bi-partisanship at times seems extinct at the federal level.

Thankfully that is not always the case, as one area where legislators on both sides of the aisle seem to join forces and work together is preservation of the Great Lakes. Evidence was again displayed this month when members of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force urged administrators to provide funding for the Great Lakes Coastline Resiliency Study. The study is designed to provide a strategy to protect Great Lakes coastlines from various threats.

Both Michigan senators — Gary Peters and Debbie Stabenow — are part of the task force that pushed for the funding. The two pointed out that the Great Lakes has 5,200 miles of coastline and within two miles of that coastline live 4.2 million people.

In a letter to federal officials, task force members write: the Great Lakes has “a maritime economy valued at $17.3 billion and generating 293,000 jobs, a $14 billion Great Lakes recreation and tourism economy, and a diverse ecosystem of features such as wetlands, bluffs, dunes and beaches and species that are either threatened or endangered.”

Politics doesn’t always have to be a circus.

Occasionally, some worthwhile work also can be done, as evidence here.

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