By Cynthia Grau/WJEZ News
Senator Mark Kirk has been a busy man.
A bill in Congress aims to do Illinois lawmakers did last year: phase out household products with plastic microbeads.
U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) is one of the co-sponsors of the Senate version of the legislation. He says he’s concerned about the 46,000 microbeads per square kilometer being found in the Great Lakes and the effect the tiny bits of plastic can have on Lake Michigan’s ecosystem.
Any ban would be phased in over the course of a few years, so Kirk has taking the intermediate step of asking companies who make body wash and other products with microbeads to clearly label them for customers.
Illinois’ own ban on microbeads goes into effect in 2017.
In other state news, the clock is ticking on the federal Highway Trust Fund, and both of Illinois’ U.S. Senators are against settling for any short-term extension.
The fund supports highway and transit projects around the country, but since 2005, Congress hasn’t been able to pass a long-term transportation funding bill, instead passing 33 short-term fixes. U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk (R-Ill.) says a much longer, larger bill is what’s best for the state.
But a six-year bill may cost $100 billion, and Congress has been reluctant to raise the gas tax, the chief revenue stream for transportation funding. If another short-term fix is all that’s proposed, U.S. Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) says Republicans will be to blame.
The latest short-term extension runs out July 31.
