Congress funds Great Lakes cleanup with $475 million per year
S. 528 — GLRI Act of 2026 · Filed by Gary Peters (D-MI) · 12 cosponsors · Introduced Feb 11, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
This bill restarts federal money for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative. The program cleans up pollution and fixes damage to the Great Lakes. It sets aside $475 million each year from 2027 through 2030.
Who it affects
Millions of people use the Great Lakes for drinking water, swimming, and fishing. States around the Great Lakes run cleanup programs. Environmental companies do the restoration work.
One thing to notice
Congress must vote to give the money each year. The bill does not say how to split the money among states.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
12 cosponsors: 9 Democrats, 3 Republicans.
- Feb 11, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Feb 11, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works”
- Apr 15, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Environment and Public Works. Hearings held”
- Sep 29, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Senate Committee on Environment and Public Works discharged by Unanimous Consent”
- Sep 29, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (text: CR S5184)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 6 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $1,710,154 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 32 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 72% of bills with any report.
Gary Peters, who sponsored the bill, received $-186,100 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Nature Conservancy — $900,000 in 1 report
- The Conservation Fund — $400,000 in 2 reports
- National Parks Conservation Association — $290,154 in 2 reports
- Trout Unlimited — $120,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- Great Lakes Restoration Initiative — A federal program that cleans up pollution and fixes damage in the Great Lakes.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (467 characters) on Sep 28, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Congress funds Great Lakes cleanup with $475 million per year” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s528/simple Report an error
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