SAULT STE. MARIE, Mich. (WLUC) - U.S. Senator Gary Peters visited Sault Ste. Marie Thursday afternoon as part of his annual motorcycle tour of the state.
Peters arrived in Sault Ste. Marie around 2:30 p.m., joined by 25 other riders.
This is Peters’ ninth year for his annual state-wide motorcycle tour. He visited the Soo Locks for a tour and update on the $3.2 billion project that would build a new Soo Lock. Peters, who is on the Senate Appropriations Committee, helped secure $450 million for that project.
If the budget is approved, the project can then begin phase three. Peters says there’s a strong chance the funding will come through.
“I was able to insert it into the appropriations language, certainly there was some give and take behind the scenes but, we basically put it in the package and it was passed unanimously out of committee, so that bodes very well for us to get it through the senate as well as to get it through the house and get it signed into law,” Sen. Gary Peters, (D) Michigan, said.
When trying to get funding for the Soo Locks project, Senator Peters explained there was a study done by the Department of Homeland Security that showed if the locks were shut down for any reason, it could negatively impact the entire U.S. economy.
“They did a study to look at what the impact would be if for some reason the Locks were shut down, perhaps a terrorist attack or some other event that shut it down, what would that mean for the whole economy, and as a result of that study, they said within a matter of two or three months the U.S. economy would be severely impacted and shortly thereafter you could actually see the economy go into a recession,” Peters said.
Peters began this year’s statewide tour in Kalamazoo.