President Trump’s budget would eliminate funding for Great Lakes restoration program

President Donald Trump’s budget would eliminate funding for a Great Lakes restoration program.

Great Lakes cleanup and protection is not among President Trump’s “highest national priorities,” according to a budget document released by the White House on Thursday.

Eliminating federal funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative and other regional environmental efforts in other parts of the country would save $427 million, the budget document indicates. The president’s budget would leave it up to states and local governments to fund such efforts.

Gov. Scott Walker did not say this week whether he wanted President Trump to change course on the Great Lakes restoration program.

“I want to make sure not just that we protect funding, but we protect money that’s used prudently,” Walker said, without saying whether the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative was a prudent use of federal funding.

The Great Lakes and St. Lawrence Cities Initiative, a coalition of mayors from more than 125 cities including Milwaukee, has blasted the proposed cuts as “a tragedy” for the Great Lakes basin.