TOLEDO, Ohio — Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur has made history. In her 40th year representing Ohio's ninth congressional district, she is the longest-serving woman in Congress.
After taking office in 1983, she said a lot has changed over the years.
"When I was first elected, we were in the midst of a terrible recession," Kaptur, a democrat, said. "It was daunting and I spent my career trying to help our region build itself out of that."
She said she already has a handful of things she's working on and is excited to see how they progress.
Despite winning re-election against Republican J.R. Majewski in November, Kaptur joins the democratic minority in the U.S. House.
But, she believes her work with the Great Lakes, infrastructure and other industries in her district, and in Ohio as a whole, will still move through Congress.
One of her top goals is to make sure the resources in the $1 trillion infrastructure bill President Joe Biden signed in November actually get delivered.
"To create the kind of good jobs and future for our region that are necessary, we have to have very visionary thinking about how we're going to handle our rail lines, the future of transport through our area," Kaptur said.
Another major focus is the Great Lakes. Her bill to create the Great Lakes Authority passed in December.
Kaptur said the commission will find and create solutions to the environmental challenges in the eight states bordering the lakes.
"I hope that we can work with our power companies and develop a public-private partnership in a way that modernizes our nuclear power," she said. "But in so doing, the federal government helps create a continuing source of financing for this great lakes authority based on energy, across our region."
Recently, Biden announced an additional $1 billion going to the Great Lakes. Kaptur said she's fighting to get as much money as she can to go to Lake Erie.