Spending bill with Great Lakes funding championed by members seen as big win

House Republicans applauded the inclusion of full funding for Great Lakes restoration in the House Appropriations Committee’s proposed $31.4 billion fiscal year 2018 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill released on Tuesday.

U.S. Rep. Bill Huizenga (R-MI), praised the committee’s request of $300 million in funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative, which he called “instrumental to sustaining economic growth” in his home state.

“While the appropriations process is not yet finalized, this legislation is a critical first step,” said Huizenga, who is co-chairman of the House Great Lakes Task Force.

The Great Lakes Restoration Initiative is the largest investment in the Great Lakes in two decades, according to the Environmental Protection Agency, and helps fund many projects to protect the lakes, such as combatting invasive species and pollution.

Equally happy was U.S. Rep. Dave Joyce (R-OH), after the House Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee — on which he serves and which funds the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative — released the draft FY 2018 spending bill.

“I am pleased to report that our loud and persistent voices to protect the Great Lakes have been heard,” Joyce wrote on his Facebook page. “This budget proposal fully funds the [initiative] at the $300 million level!”

Calling it “a big win,” Joyce said the fight isn’t over.

“This bill will need to pass out of the subcommittee, the full committee and on the House floor before going to the Senate and ultimately the president’s desk,” he wrote on Tuesday.

The appropriations bill would fund the Department of the Interior, the EPA, the Forest Service and a host of other related agencies.

“This legislation responsibly supports the agencies and offices we rely on to preserve our natural resources for future generations and prioritizes our limited funding to programs that protect environmental safety,” said House Appropriations Committee Chairman Rodney Frelinghuysen (R-NJ).

“The committee’s vigorous oversight [also] has identified opportunities to rein in the federal bureaucracy and to stop many harmful and unnecessary regulations that destroy economic opportunity and hinder job creation,” Frelinghuysen added.

Although the House appropriators’ proposed bill requests $824 million less than the FY 2017 budget provided, the $31.4 billion total is $4.3 billion above President Donald Trump’s proposed bill, which would have significantly decreased the EPA’s budget and cut some 3,200 of the agency’s roughly 15,000 jobs.