The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is in need of some restoration itself.

What began in 2010 as an unprecedented $475 million annual commitment to protect and restore the planet's largest freshwater ecosystem dropped to $300 million this year.

Now the U.S. House Appropriations Committee has approved only $250 million for 2012. The full House is to vote this week.

Here's what must happen: The House needs to bump up that funding to $350 million -- the amount President Barack Obama requested. His restoration initiative targets threats such as invasive species and toxic blue-green algae blooms that endanger a $7.5 billion commercial fishing industry, 800,000 jobs and the drinking water of 30 million people.

Rep. Steve LaTourette, a Republican from Bainbridge Township, and Rep. Marcy Kaptur, a Toledo Democrat, both of whom sit on the House Appropriations Committee, have been instrumental in keeping the initiative afloat.

They get it. The initiative isn't an expenditure. It's an investment. Look at the Lacustrine Refuge Project in Cleveland's North Collinwood neighborhood. It received a $1.4 million federal grant in 2010 to restore five acres of urban coastal wetlands and create a fish and plant habitat that is projected to generate $2.4 million in eco-tourism.

The restoration dollars similarly will be targeted at real projects with economic development potential and to protect the lakes -- an irreplaceable asset.

LaTourette and Kaptur are joined by area Democrats in supporting full funding in the House. Sen. Sherrod Brown, Democrat from Avon, will do the same in the Senate. And we'll see whether Sen. Rob Portman, a Cincinnati Republican -- who did not return repeated calls -- steps up to do the same.