Puget Sound cleanup survives Trump attempt to kill it
The Trump administration failed in its efforts to wipe out money to clean up Puget Sound and other waterways from Chesapeake Bay to the Great Lakes, as Congress has refused to dry up spending on water programs.
Puget Sound gets $28 million as part of $8.08 billion in funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The Trump administration had wanted to slash EPA's budget to $5.7 billion, in real dollars its lowest spending in 40 years.
The money is contained in a mammoth omnibus federal spending bill, passed Thursday by the House of Representatives and due for final action Friday in the Senate.
President Trump was both boasting and grousing about the $1.3 trillion spending package in a Thursday tweet, saying he had secured $700 billion-plus for the military and $1.6 billion to "start wall on Southern Border."
"Had to waste money on Dem giveaways in order to take care of military pay increase and new equipment," he complained.
But lawmakers from both parties decried the proposed cleanup cuts as foolish and counterproductive. "Our region's identity and economic health are directly tied to the health of Puget Sound," Rep. Derek Kilmer, D-Wash., said Thursday night.
The "giveaways" included a number of programs important for the Northwest and the West, including:
-- Forest fires: Congress' package provides $2 billion in yearly money over the next decade for the U.S. Forest Service's firefighting "account." The money will permit the federal agency to end its practice of "borrowing" money to fight fires from programs to prevent fires.
Climate change has resulted in higher temperatures, earlier snow melts and smaller snowpacks -- extending the fire season and leaving federal and state agencies to fight larger fires. One example -- the 230,000-acre Carlton Complex fire in north-central Washington.
-- Hanford cleanup: The big-budget package contains $2.422 billion for cleanup of nuclear waste at the Hanford Nuclear Reservation, which spent 45 years producing plutonium for the nation's nuclear weapons. Hanford holds the nation's largest concentration of high-level nuclear waste.
Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., had a set-to with U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry at a Senate hearing this week over proposed budget cuts to Hanford.
-- Sound Transit: The Trump administration has proposed slashing a "New Starts" program, on which Sound Transit is depending to partially pay for extending light rail service south to Federal Way and north to Lynnwood.
Instead, Congress has increased the Federal Transit Administration's budget -- a classic case of the old doctrine, "the president proposes but Congress disposes."
-- Icebreaker: Sens. Cantwell and Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, secured $150 million to begin work on a new heavy polar icebreaker. At present, the U.S. has one operational heavy-duty icebreaker. Russia has a fleet to use in polar waters, where ice packs are shrinking and opening waters to navigation.
-- Land and Water Conservation Fund: Trump wanted to ax it, but Congress actually increased by $25 million the fund that acquires recreation land, wildlife habitat, and private holdings in federal parks and wilderness areas.
The program takes a chunk of federal revenue from offshore oil and gas leasing. It has been a target of the political right since the Reagan Administration sought its elimination in the early 1980s.
The budget bill generated what has become an annual reaction from members of Congress.
Lawmakers have decried what it failed to do -- e.g. lack of action on letting the "Dreamers" remain in America -- while claiming an instrumental role in benefits flowing back to their states.
By: Joel Connelly
Source: Seattle Pi