After writing a letter to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell and speaking to the White House late last week on the need to establish a functioning International Joint Commission (IJC), Assemblyman Steve Hawley (R,C,I-Batavia) proudly announced that the United State Senate confirmed former Assemblywoman Jane Corwin along with Lance Yohe and Robert Sisson as commissioners of the IJC.

“I am pleased to announce that Majority Leader McConnell and the United States Senate heard our pleas regarding the gravity of this situation along Lake Ontario and finally confirmed the three commissioners – I thank them for their help,” Hawley said. “Now that a functioning IJC is in place we need to move forward and immediately develop a plan to regulate water levels as well as ensure that flood prevention and recovery efforts are in place in the event that water levels continue to rise precipitously.”

Hawley, who has a close relationship with now Commissioner Corwin, plans to move ahead with remediating imminent flooding along Lake Ontario’s Southern Shoreline, which he witnessed firsthand last week on a self-guided tour from the towns of Yates to Kendall.

“I will be working with state leaders and my regional colleagues in both houses the last several weeks of session to see that a plan is in place and funding is set aside in the case that homeowners and businesses face the same devastation they endured in 2017,” Hawley concluded.