WASHINGTON, DC (WHTC) – There are reports that the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative might be cut by as much as 97% in the Trump budget.
Currently $300 million is funded annually for projects to restore and maintain the Great Lakes. Zeeland Congressman Bill Huizenga along with Congressman Mike Bishop (R-MI), and Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur (D-OH) led a bipartisan letter to President Trump requesting that he personally intervene to help protect the Great Lakes by releasing the first draft of the Brandon Road Report.
The letter also requests President Trump to instruct the Army Corps of Engineers to continue working with state and local officials, as well as Great Lakes stakeholders, to implement a long term solution for keeping Asian Carp out of the Great Lakes. The bipartisan letter is signed by 26 members of the U.S. House of Representatives.
The text of the letter to President Trump can be found online.
Previous attempts by the White House to trim that fund have been defeated by a bi-partisan coalition of Midwest lawmakers and that could once again be the case.
Republican Congressman Fred Upton is calling the report “alarming” and Democratic Senator Debbie Stabenow sent out a news release calling the cuts “outrageous”.
The White House isn’t confirming the report. Congress will make the final decision.
Huizenga will host a town hall listening style session Monday night, March 6, at 7 p.m. in the auditorium of Lakeshore Middle School located at 900 Cutler Street in Grand Haven. Doors open at 6:15 p.m. and the town hall is from 7-9 p.m.
