By TIM FAULKNER/ecoRI News staff
On the same night that the U.S.
Senate rejected the latest effort to repeal and replace the Affordable Care
Act, it also come out forcefully against President Trump’s effort to eliminate
funding for key coastal programs.
In its funding bill for the
departments of Commerce, Justice and Science, the Senate approved funding for
the Coastal Resources Management Council, Sea
Grant and the National Estuarine Research Reserves.
Instead of level funding, the Senate
increased by $2 million to $76.5 million for the Sea Grant program, a division
of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
“The Committee flatly rejects the
[Trump] administration’s proposed elimination of NOAA's Sea Grant program,” the
Senate Appropriations Committee wrote in a statement regarding
the 2018 funding bill.
The Sea Grant program at the
University of Rhode Island is one of 33 nationwide affiliated with universities
located near salt water and the Great Lakes. New England has eight Sea Grant
offices that focus on coastal hazards, sustainable coastal development, and
seafood safety.
Rhode Island Sea Grant receives $2 million from the federal government
annually to run its research center at URI’s Bay Campus in Narragansett.
Another $1 million is provided by the state and other sources. Its research
includes studies of algal blooms, oyster farming, and lobster diseases.
Had Trump’s budget passed, nine
positions would have been lost between the URI research center and a laboratory
at Roger William University in Bristol.
“We are very pleased that the House and Senate have rejected the president’s request to terminate the program,” said Dennis Nixon, director of Rhode Island Sea Grant.
Nixon said Sea Grant has no critics
in Congress and that it seen as a valuable institution for advancing timely
research.
Trump has been accused of using a
broad brush to eliminate any program with the word “grant” in it, to increase
defense spending and pay for a border wall with Mexico.
Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse, D-R.I., and
other Washington insiders maintain that the president’s budget holds little
influence on spending and that Congress ultimately decides how money is
appropriated.
Soon after Trump released his proposed budget in March, Whitehouse downplayed major funding cuts to the Environmental Protection
Agency and other environmental programs such as Sea Grant.
“Do not be dissuaded or dismayed by
the cuts to EPA, the elimination of Sea Grant and other such efforts,”
Whitehouse said on March 11. “It is an act of political theater; it is not an
act of budgeting.”
Some $85 million was also restored
for coastal management grants.
The funds pay for about 60 percent of the budget
for the Coastal Resources Management Council (CRMC), a state agency based in
Wakefield. CRMC is responsible for permitting coastal development such as docks
and seawalls.
The 46-year-old agency also creates planning guidelines for
offshore wind development and climate-change adaptation. Its Ocean
Special Area Management Plan is
considered one of the most advanced coastal planning documents in the country.
The Narragansett Bay Estuarine Reserve, based on Prudence Island, had its 70 percent of federal
funding restored. The research reserve has eight employees and an $850,000
annual budget. It's one of 28 research reserves nationwide. The Rhode Island
facility conducts research and monitoring of shoreline habitat. Recent projects
have focused on eelgrass and the Asian shore crab.
The U.S. House of Representatives
already passed similar funding for these coastal programs. The two budgets are
expected to be modified slightly to match before they are fully approved for
the fiscal year that begins Oct. 1.
“It’s good news that both the House
and Senate are funding the coastal programs,” said Grover Fugate, CRMC's
executive director.
