The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative - a fund dedicated to preserving and cleaning up the Great Lakes - could see a $20 million boost.
The fund, which has averaged a $300 million appropriation, left a house committee this week with a proposal for an additional $20 million.
Since coming into office President Trump has proposed massive cuts to the fund - only reversing course recently and tweeting “we must protect our Great Lakes.”
Jordan Lubetkin is with the Healing Our Water Great Lakes Coalition. He said he doesn’t believe the President’s change in position lead to the increased funding.
“I think that this really does speak to Congress and their long term resolve to keep this thing moving.”
Funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative has seen strong bipartisan support since it first went into effect under President Obama.
Lubetkin said the President’s recent support for the fund is good, but the support rings hollow given the administration's ongoing efforts to rollback a portion of the Clean Water Act.
Lubetkin said the increased funding is a sign that congress understands the growing number of environmental problems in the region - from PFAs chemical contamination to invasive species like the Asian Carp.
“We know that we can’t slack off. If anything we need to do more not less. We like to think that this bump of funding is a realization that we have more work to do we have to pick up the effort.”
The funding proposal now goes before the full House. Lubetkin said he expects a vote sometime in June.
It is not clear when the U.S. Senate will take up its budget.