Leadership

The Leadership Lowdown waited for many months to get Phil Sponsler as our guest...and the wait was SO WORTH IT!  The conversation is full of great pearls of wisdom from a highly successful career!  

WASHINGTON – U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry, today announced $139,000 in grants for two rural West Michigan communities. The City of New Buffalo will receive a grant for $40,000 to reconstruct their waterfront and municipal marina. The City of Allegan will receive a grant for $99,000 to finish their downtown development project. These funds come from the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Rural Business Development Grant Program.

DETROIT, MI – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (MI) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) joined a group of Northern border Senate colleagues in a letter to President Biden, urging his administration to allow vaccinated Canadians to travel to the U.S. through land ports of entry. Noting the economic and familial strains caused by the continued restrictions at the U.S.-Canada border, the Senators asked the President to lift travel restrictions before October, create a public plan to reopen land ports of entry to vaccinated Canadians, and appoint an interagency lead to spearhead coordination.

WASHINGTON, D.C - U.S. Senators Debbie Stabenow (MI) and Gary Peters (MI) today announced that the Michigan Public Health Institute will receive $1,408,797 to provide smoke detectors and develop online fire prevention tools for Michigan schools. The Fire Department Safety Officers Association will also receive $1,500,000 in federal funding to support community fire prevention education and training. These federal funds come from the Department of Homeland Security's Fire Prevention and Safety Grant (FP&S) Program.

Lawmakers Lead Successful Effort to Extend Medicaid Health Coverage for Residents Impacted by the Flint Water Crisis 

WASHINGTON—Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Chairwoman of the Health Subcommittee of the Senate Finance Committee, Senator Gary Peters (D-MI), and Congressman Dan Kildee (MI-05) today announced that the Biden Administration will extend Medicaid eligibility for thousands of pregnant women and children in Flint.

OKEMOS, Mich. – Michigan HomeCare & Hospice Association has announced the results of its annual election of board members who will serve new two-year terms.

DETROIT, MI – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (MI) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) announced $1,468,390 in federal funding has been awarded to the City of Jackson’s fire department to recruit and retain additional personnel. This funding comes from the Department of Homeland Security’s (DHS) Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant program.

DETROIT, MI – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (MI) and Debbie Stabenow (MI) announced that the U.S. Department of Treasury’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund) has awarded $125 million in total funding to Michigan to spur investment and economic growth in low-income urban and rural communities across the state. Cinnaire New Markets LLC will receive $60 million, while Michigan Community Capital will receive $65 million through the New Markets Tax Credit Program.

Vic Verchereau's latest guest is Alex Scovill, the immediate past president of Michigan FFA. The FFA Organization, formerly known as Future Farmers of America, is a national youth organization of about 650,000 student members as part of 7,757 local FFA chapters.

WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Senators Gary Peters (MI), Chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, and Debbie Stabenow (MI) are calling on President Biden to grant an updated request from Governor Whitmer to provide additional assistance for communities in Southeast Michigan that are still recovering from severe flooding that occurred in late June. President Biden previously approved a Major Disaster declaration for Washtenaw and Wayne Counties, but additional damage assessments have shown that communities in Macomb, Oakland, and Ionia Counties also sustained severe losses.