Bill Posey's, Patrick Murphy's NEP Reauthorization Passes House

The U.S. House reauthorized the National Estuary Program (NEP) on Monday with two of the four main sponsors of the bill coming from Florida: Republican U.S. Rep. Bill Posey and Democrat U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy. Both Posey and Murphy noted how the legislation will help improve Indian River Lagoon. 

“This common-sense plan will help provide critical funding for our nation’s estuaries, and make available additional funding to estuaries that are experiencing urgent and challenging ecological problems, including our own Indian River Lagoon,” Posey said. “I’m pleased to see this important legislation move forward in a strongly bipartisan manner.”
 
“This year, toxic algae blooms have already threatened our waterways in the Treasure Coast,” said Murphy, who is running for the U.S. Senate in 2016.  “This legislation provides additional financial resources to directly address the challenges we continue to face in the Indian River Lagoon.  I appreciate the House’s bipartisan work on this effort and urge the Senate to quickly take up this measure.”
 
The bill ensures the federal Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) focuses its grants on estuaries that are facing crises.