U.S. SENATOR PATRICK LEAHY

Leahy Secures Millions More For Lake Champlain
In Budget Bill Signed Wednesday By President Bush

(WEDNESDAY, Dec. 8) – President Bush Wednesday signed a budget bill that includes nearly $6 million that Sen. Patrick Leahy led in securing for a variety of projects for the cleanup and preservation of Lake Champlain. 

Leahy, a senior member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, has long championed Vermont’s “Great Lake” through federal help to restore and protect it.  In recent years he has helped secure more than $75 million to begin restoration and preservation efforts on the lake.  The Senate Appropriations Committee handled the Senate’s work in writing the budget bill.

"The federal partnership with Vermont on Lake Champlain is strong, and it is more important than ever in helping us tackle the problems facing our lake,” said Leahy.  “This will help Vermont, New York and Quebec in overcoming these challenges.  I’m proud of what we’ve been able to accomplish, but there’s much more work ahead.”

Leahy included the following funding for Lake Champlain in the 2005 Omnibus Appropriations Act (Leahy and Sen. Jim Jeffords, I-Vt., worked together in securing this year’s funding for the Lake Champlain Basin Program, one of the programs listed below.  Jeffords is the Ranking Member of the Committee on Environment and Public Works, which authorizes the program, and has also supported Leahy’s efforts on the Appropriations Committee in funding it):

§  $1.85 million for the Lake Champlain Basin Program*

§  $845,000 for sea lamprey control efforts

§  $650,000 for ECHO at the Leahy Center

§  $550,000 for water and air pollution research activities

§  $500,000 for the Army Corps Lake Champlain Watershed Initiative

§  $485,000 for U.S. Geological Survey water monitoring

§  $400,000 for invasive plant control efforts

§  $300,000 to reduce stormwater runoff in Stevens Brook

§  $295,000 for phosphorus runoff control demonstration projects on farms

§  $100,000 for cormorant control