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Senate FY17 Energy & Water Bill Includes Kirk-Driven Provisions to Boosts Supercomputer Development, Strengthens Illinois Waterway Infrastructure; Bill Funds National Labs, Waterway Infrastructure, Cybersecurity Improvements

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today helped pass long-term highway and rail bill that invests $6.3 billion in Illinois highways and transit systems over the next three years and includes Kirk-authored legislation to reform and reauthorize the Export-Import Bank and open access to low-interest financing for freight and passenger rail projects.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today introduced legislation that would make the Chicago Transit Authority (CTA) eligible for a program that speeds completion of rail improvement projects, such as the Red and Purple Lines Modernization program. The Expedite Transit Act, S. 1734, would expand eligibility criteria of a federal transportation funding program to provide local transit agencies such as the CTA with increased access to public-private partnerships and innovative financing

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk today applauded the Senate Appropriations Committee’s passage of an FY 2016 Interior Appropriations bill that includes a Kirk-advanced ban on sewage dumping in the Great Lakes. The Kirk ban on Great Lakes sewage dumping would set a date certain to end dumping in order to protect the Lakes – home to 95 percent of surface fresh water in America. It now heads to the Senate floor for passage

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.), along with U.S. Representatives Robert Dold (R-Ill.-10), Mike Quigley (D-Ill.-5) and Daniel Lipinski (D-Ill.-03) introduced the Great Lakes Water Protection Act (GLWPA), which would set a 2035 deadline to end sewage dumping in the Great Lakes, provide clean water for the next generation, and minimize the economic impact beach closures have on local communities every year.

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today met with veterans who work at Rags of Honor, a silk-screening business that works to get homeless veterans off the streets, and talked with leadership and veterans about S. 1004, the Veterans Day Moment of Silence Act, which was introduced earlier this year with five bipartisan cosponsors. The bill requires the President to issue a proclamation each year that calls on United States citizens to observe two minutes of silence on Veterans Day in honor of the service and sacrifice of veterans throughout history

U.S. Senator Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) today joined with Peoria Mayor Jim Ardis and other local leaders to call for swift approval of a 100% green infrastructure proposal that would save money for residents while improving water quality and infrastructure and creating jobs in central Illinois.