Senate Panel Rejects Trump Plan to Slash Chesapeake Bay Funding.

'A Senate panel voted today to boost funding for federal Chesapeake Bay programs next year – a reversal from the Trump administration’s effort to slash the programs.

The Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency approved $76 million for the Chesapeake Bay Program for 2020. The committee’s proposal is a bump-up over current spending levels and would be the first funding boost for the program in five years.

“This program is central to our efforts to maintain a healthy Bay and ultimately a healthy Maryland economy,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a member of the subcommittee, said in a statement. “I’m pleased to have secured this investment, despite the President’s continued efforts to rob the program of its funding.”

House Democrats approved even higher funding for the program in their fiscal 2020 spending bill. The spending measure the House passed over the summer has $83 million for the Chesapeake Bay program. Van Hollen said he hopes the final funding level will be closer to that number, as House and Senate lawmakers hammer out funding deals later this year.

“I hope that as we move through the process, we can get to a higher number,” Van Hollen told the committee today.>>>

https://www.marylandmatters.org/2019/09/24/senate-panel-rejects-trump-plan-to-slash-chesapeake-bay-funding/?