2013

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN)

Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN, sixth from left) accepts her 2013 Great Lakes Legislator of the Year Award. Senator Klobuchar has been focused on Great Lakes issues since her first day in the Senate. While the dredging crisis has dominated legislators’ attention to the Great Lakes for the past several years, there are other issues and on these Sen. Klobuchar has likewise been a leader. Senator Klobuchar understands we desperately need a second Poe-sized lock at Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan. Twinning the Poe Lock will not only ensure that America’s steel mills have reliable access to Minnesota and Michigan iron ore, but that Midwest farmers can ship their grain to overseas markets. Sen. Klobuchar has also been fully supportive of efforts to maintain the U.S. Coast Guard’s icebreaking fleet on the Lakes. She wants a strong Great Lakes shipping industry to not only support iron miners in Minnesota, but steelworkers in Indiana and Pennsylvania, longshoremen in Ohio and Illinois, limestone quarries in Michigan, shipyards workers in Wisconsin, and grain handlers in New York, and never loses sight of that goal.