The Bay is Saved!

Congress finds room in the $1.3 trillion (with a "t") for the Chesapeake Bay. Funds for Chesapeake Bay Survive in Federal Spending Bill

It's the second year the Trump administration has proposed cutting federal funds for the Chesapeake Bay Program, a regional partnership between states to help restore the bay. This year's proposal would have cut the $73 million budget by 90 percent.

But Chanté Coleman, director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, says her group of about 200 members stormed Capitol Hill with success stories about the progress of the bay cleanup efforts – and it worked.

"So, we were able to get the funding back by going and meeting with our members of Congress in all of our watershed states,” says Coleman. “So that's Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware, Maryland, West Virginia, Virginia and the District of Columbia."

The $1.3 trillion omnibus spending bill working its way through Congress overrides the Trump administration's proposed cuts in the current fiscal year, and would maintain the Chesapeake Bay Program funding at last year's level.

Coleman says there is broad bipartisan support for the Chesapeake Bay, and lawmakers simply want proof that cleanup efforts are working – proof she says coalition members were ready to provide.

I don't think the funding for the Bay was ever seriously at threat.