Van Hollen Announces Increase In Bay Funding In Key Senate Bill

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen has secured $76 million in funding for the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program within the Senate Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Fiscal Year 2020 funding bill. Federal efforts would have slashed funding for the bay program to $7.3 million.

“The Chesapeake Bay Program is our first line of defense in protecting and preserving the bay,” said Senator Van Hollen, a member of the Appropriations Committee. “This program is central to our efforts to maintain a healthy bay and ultimately a healthy Maryland economy.”

Kristin Reilly, director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, said the funding is essential. “The Chesapeake Bay Program has not received a funding increase in five years,” she said.

“Money buys progress,” said Ann Swanson, executive director of the Chesapeake Bay Commission. “We now have the ability to target our clean water projects so that they are both geographically strategic and cost-effective.”

In addition to funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program, Van Hollen also secured provisions to support the bay through:

• $400,000 for the Captain John Smith Chesapeake National Historic Trail and $3 million for Chesapeake Gateways to support outdoor recreation and conservation.
• $172.3 million for national Nonpoint Source Grants, which can help bay states meet nonpoint pollution reductions in nitrogen, phosphorus and sediment.
• Language in the Agriculture Appropriations bill to ensure that the Chesapeake Bay Watershed continues to be a Critical Conservation Area for the purpose of prioritizing funding from the Department of Agriculture’s Regional Conservation Partnership Program.
• Funding in the energy and water appropriations bill, which provides $20 million to the Army Corps of Engineers for multistate ecosystem restoration programs that could be applied to oyster restoration projects in the bay.
• Funding in the energy and water appropriations bill, which provides support the Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration Program and language to encourage the Army Corps to provide sufficient funding in future budget submissions or the Fiscal Year 2020 Work Plan.
• Funding in the energy and water appropriations bill, which provides support the Corps’ Chesapeake Bay Comprehensive Water Resources and Restoration Plan, which is an assessment of the bay watershed and includes strategies and recommendations for planned and future restoration activities in the bay.
• Funding in the energy and water appropriations bill, which provides an additional $70 million for the Army Corps Work Plan for project construction that could be applied to Chesapeake Bay Oyster Restoration. This is an increase of $20 million from FY 2019, and an increase of $70 million from the president’s budget.