Great Lakes Aquatic Connectivity and Infrastructure Program Act

Great Lakes Aquatic Connectivity and Infrastructure Program Act

This bill establishes within the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) the Great Lakes Aquatic Connectivity and Infrastructure Program to identify and implement voluntary measures that restore aquatic species to self-sustaining levels by reconnecting aquatic habitats in the Great Lakes basin while maintaining and modernizing needed infrastructure, particularly in locations where roads, tributaries, or dams intersect.

The USFWS and the Department of Transportation must collaborate with federal, state, local, and tribal governments, the Great Lakes Fishery Commission, signatories to the Joint Strategic Plan for Management of Great Lakes Fisheries, and any other appropriate stakeholders to support: (1) sound approaches to addressing infrastructure and aquatic populations in the Great Lakes, and (2) ecosystem resiliency.

The USFWS must: (1) finalize a strategic plan for the program to address aquatic connectivity in the Great Lakes basin, and (2) annually request proposals for funding that would be used to restore aquatic connectivity in the basin and support the strategic plan.

The bill also establishes the Great Lakes Aquatic Connectivity and Infrastructure Committee to review the proposals and recommend to the USFWS proposals that should receive funding.

Nothing in this bill conflicts with the authority of the Great Lakes Fishery Commission to eradicate or minimize a sea lamprey population under the 1954 Convention on Great Lakes Fisheries between the United States and Canada.