News Photo by Steve Schulwitz The sun sets over Thunder Bay after a frigid day in Alpena on Friday. U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, says he will continue to pursue funding to preserve and protect the Great Lakes.

ALPENA — Northeast Michigan has been fortunate for nearly a decade to have representatives in Lansing who are on appropriation committees, which help decide how tax money is allocated.

In Washington DC, U.S. Senator Gary Peters, D-Bloomfield Township, was appointed by Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to the senate’s Appropriations Committee, and Peters said he will lobby for more money for Michigan and Northeast Michigan to help address their needs.

In Lansing, State Rep. Cam Cavitt, R-Mullett Township, was recently appointed to serve on the influential House Appropriations Committee, which gives Northeast Michigan a voice at the state level.

Rep. John Moolenaar (R-Midland) was also appointed to the House Committee on Appropriations, where he will also be a strong voice for bringing needed funding to the region.

“I am grateful for the privilege to advocate for Michigan’s most important priorities including rural development, protecting the Great Lakes, and supporting seniors. I will be questioning federal officials and holding them accountable for their spending proposals. Michigan residents work hard and their tax dollars should never be wasted,” Moolenaar said in a press release.

Former State Sen. Jim Stamas served on the state senate’s Appropriations Committee for eight years, including being chairman from 2018 until he reached his term limit at the end of last year.

Former State Rep. Sue Allor also served on the House Appropriations committee until her term ended at the end of 2022.

In Washington, Peters is the first senator to represent Michigan on the senate’s appropriations committee full time since the late 1950s, when Sen. Charles Potter served on the committee from 1955 to 1959.

Sen. Don Riegle, a Democrat, was the last Michigan senator to serve on the Appropriations Committee, having been a member of the committee for about a month in 1977.

Peters said having a say in where and how money is spent is critical and he aims to make sure Michigan gets its fair share.

He said not having someone from the state on the Appropriations Committee means other senators may not get the needed information, data, and clarity for projects and investment.

“It is critical,” Peters said. “To have someone there to make sure Michigan gets its fair share is important.”

When making decisions on spending for Michigan, Peters said his goal is to continue to focus on the state’s natural resources and to lobby to lure funds from the federal government to preserve and protect Lake Huron and the other Great Lakes.

“My number one priority is protecting the Great Lakes and will continue to be,” he said.

Peters said streamlining money to Michigan and the Alpena region for infrastructure, such as roads, bridges, fiber optics, and job training programs also rank high on his list for things he would like to see money flow into the state for.

Tim Kuehnlein, political science and history instructor at the Alpena Community College, said it is not the government’s money that is doled out and used to support a wide variety of functions.

He said the simple fact is the government is simply returning what taxpayers have given it and it is important to receive as much back as possible because of the many needs rural areas like Northeast Michigan have.

“We pay money to each level of government through taxes. What do we get back? Given that (Northeast) Michigan is one of the poorest regions of our state and nation, those federal and state redistributions help build infrastructure, support schools, hospitals, and businesses for sustaining and innovating themselves, among other things,” Kuehnlein said. “Having representation from our region/state on appropriations committees at all levels helps ensure that we as a region are heard, especially as allocations for distribution of those tax dollars are made at each level.”

After being elected to his senate seat in 2014, Peters has climbed the committee ranks and has increased his stature among his peers.

He also sits on the Armed Forces Committee, which is critical for northern Michigan, which has military bases in Alpena and Grayling.

Peters said the success he has had during his time in Washington can be attributed to sharing ideas, concerns, having friendly debate with others, and being able to compromise sometimes.

Those practices have led to Peters being a leader in getting laws passed.

Over the last two years, Peters authored and had passed 19 bills that were signed into law. That is more than any U.S. senator in a single Congress in more than 40 years, Peters said in a press release.

He said he is particularly proud of the ones that improve national security and protect the privacy of his constituents.

“The ones that helped address cybersecurity I feel were important because that is one of the major threats we have in our nation,” Peters said.

Peters said he thinks his ability to garner support from Republican senators to get the bills passed in both chambers of congress and eventually receive the signature of the sitting president is one of his strong suits.

Peters said he was also able to get a significant number of laws passed when Republicans held the majority of the House and Senate, before Democrats took control of both chambers more recently.

Now, the Republicans have reclaimed the majority in the House, but Peters said he is confident he can still be effective because he is willing to work with anyone to get things done.

“I’m willing to work in a bi-partisan way and I always try to get a Republican to co-sponsor a bill,” he said.

Now that the new congress has been seated, Peters said there is much more he wants to do. He said he continues to work on new legislation to bring to the table.

“I have a lot of bills in the hopper and I’ve been working hard,” he said.