Posted on July 27, 2017
By Josh Bollinger, Cecil Whig
While it’s not the zero-dollar funding proposed in the President Donald Trump administration’s budget, funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program was voted by a House Appropriations Committee to be cut by 18 percent for fiscal year 2018.
The House Appropriations Committee — of which U.S. Rep. Andy Harris (R-1st District) is a member — voted Tuesday, July 18, to cut funding to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program by 18 percent, representing a funding decrease from $73 million to $60 million.
Similarly, the committee voted to cut the EPA’s budget by 7 percent, less than the 31 percent cut proposed by the Trump administration.
Trump has called to cut funding to the EPA, including no funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program and other environmental cleanup programs across the country, in favor of increased spending elsewhere in the budget, which would result in a larger financial burden to states and local governments for Bay cleanup.
The Chesapeake Bay Program helps facilitate Bay cleanup between states across the watershed and tracks progress of pollution reduction.
The proposal drew the ire of Maryland lawmakers, both state and federal, who vowed to push for Chesapeake Bay Program funding in the FY 2018 budget.
“Earlier this year, I submitted a request to the House Appropriations Committee in support of funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup projects, and I am pleased that the program is funded in the House Appropriations Committee’s FY 18 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies bill,” Harris said in a Friday statement. “While this year’s funding level is lower than previous years, the Appropriations process is far from complete, and that level may still increase.”
The proposal to eliminate federal Bay cleanup funding also drew jeers from the environmental field, and for some, the $60 million instead of $73 isn’t enough, although the effort by bipartisan members of Congress to push for funding is appreciated.
“Full funding for the Bay Program is critical,” Chesapeake Bay Foundation Vice President Kim Coble said.
“Our investments in this program have real impact and cuts will too. The majority of funds are invested through grant programs that leverage local investment, so $13 million in federal funding results in another $13 million of local, state and private investments,” she said. “That means a total loss of $26 million that could be going into local restoration projects, local economies, local clean water.”
The main consensus behind environmentalists’ arguments is that the Chesapeake Bay cleanup is starting to show signs of progress, and to now cut federal funding — an integral part of the cleanup effort — would be a mistake, or “illogical,” as Environmental Integrity Project Executive Director Eric Schaeffer put it.
“Yes, that would be far better than zero funding suggested by the Trump administration. But I don’t believe the great Chesapeake Bay deserves a bar set so low,” he said.
A separate appropriations bill, the fiscal 2018 Energy and Water Development, and Related Agencies bill, supports one project directly related to Cecil County: dredging of the C&D Canal.
The bill appropriates $15.585 million for maintenance dredging of the waterway that connects the Chesapeake Bay and the Delaware River, easing access to the Port of Baltimore from the Ports of Wilmington, Philadelphia and the northern trade routes.
The legislation also included an amendment on the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Project, worked on by Maryland Democratic U.S. Sens. Chris Van Hollen and Ben Cardin.
According to Van Hollen’s office, the amendment includes specific language expressing the Appropriation Committee’s support of the project and encourages the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to provide sufficient funding in future budget submissions of the fiscal year 2018 work plan.
Source: Cecil Whig
