Sen. Stabenow Statement on Great Lakes funding cuts in Trump Administration budget request

U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI). (Photo courtesy Sen. Stabenow)

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), co-chair of the Senate Great Lakes Task Force, released a statement today on the proposed Trump Administration budget that would make a 90 percent cut to funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative:

"The Trump Administration just doesn’t get it and is once again gutting funding for the Great Lakes," Stabenow said. "Just like last year, and the year before, the people of Michigan will make their voices heard and I will lead the bipartisan fight to restore every penny."

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative (GLRI), which Senator Stabenow authored in 2010 and has continued to champion, is critical to cleaning up the Great Lakes, beaches, and waterways and fighting invasive species like Asian carp. According to the University Research Corridor, more than 700,000 Michigan jobs, one in five in the state, are tied to water.

During Sen. Stabenow's Apri 2017 visit to Michigan Tech's Great Lakes Research Center, she commented on the need to push back against the Trump Administration's efforts to defund the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative:

Following a 2017 presentation by Amy Marcarelli, Michigan Tech associate professor of biological sciences, concerning Great Lakes research on invasive species and algal blooms, Sen. Debbie Stabenow comments on the importance of GLRI funding for Great Lakes scientific projects. Seated next to her is former Michigan Tech President Glenn Mroz. (File video by Keweenaw Now)*

President Trump proposed cutting funding to the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative in his 2017, 2018, and 2019 budget requests. Senator Stabenow led the effort to restore that funding all three years.

* Editor's Note: Click here to read our Apr. 24, 2017, article, "Sen. Debbie Stabenow learns about Michigan Tech's Great Lakes research during visit to GLRC."