WASHINGTON – President Donald Trump’s spending freezes and grants cuts are hurting efforts to improve local water quality in the Chesapeake Bay region, lawmakers and environmental groups said Wednesday.
“The pause in federal funding for clean water projects is putting community partners, like farmers, small businesses and localities, in dire financial situations,” Kristin Reilly, director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, said in a statement.
For the thirteenth year in a row, the Choose Clean Water Coalition hosted its “Chesapeake Bay Day on Capitol Hill” to advocate for current and future funding for a network of over 300 nonprofit organizations.
Advocates with the coalition met with congressional staff and lawmakers amidst continuing uncertainty over current federal spending under program cuts and cancellations ordered by the Trump administration and carried out by billionaire Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
A deeply divided Congress also is wrestling with a March 15 deadline to keep the government running and remains far from hard negotiations on longer-term spending.
Coalition members requested over $92 million in funding to work on projects that they said would stimulate local economies, improve the health of communities and safeguard natural resources. Reilly said that the money appropriated for the current fiscal year already has been allocated, but because of the freeze, it is not flowing to coalition recipients.
The funds are distributed as reimbursements, coalition officials said. A lot of organizations already have done their work or bought the materials needed to do their work, but they are now waiting to be reimbursed. Without the money, the work has come to a halt.
“The vitality of the (Chesapeake) Bay is essential to economic success,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said. “If the Chesapeake Bay died, so would lots of businesses – businesses that make their living off the bounty of the Bay.”
That includes oystermen, fisheries, recreation and tourism, Van Hollen said.
Bryan Hofmann, deputy director of the Friends of the Rappahannock, one of the numerous nonprofits in the coalition, expressed his frustration about not knowing if or when the funding freeze will thaw. He said that the federal money his organization receives would go straight to “on-the-ground” efforts to clean and protect the Chesapeake Bay watershed.
“There was a comment made by the administration yesterday – they intended to cut the workforce and cut the budget by 65%,” Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, D-Maryland, said. “I think it’s going to make it extraordinarily difficult for us to continue the work that we’re doing…Those are the kinds of cuts and freezes that make no sense whatsoever and have a negative economic impact on our state and other states.”
Rep. Rob Wittman, R-Virginia, a staunch supporter of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, emphasized the importance of bipartisan support.
“The Bay is a national treasure; it has value to everybody,” Wittman said. “We have to do more to improve water quality. We understand the value of the resources in the Bay; that’s something that’s universal.”
“We have always enjoyed bipartisan support,” Reilly said. “It’s really because the members of Congress see the amazing things that are happening with the funding. We’re able to take them out into their districts to see the pollution reduction projects, the habitat that’s been created for fish and wildlife…And I think that is something that they can understand, and they see the benefits.”