Van Hollen: Chesapeake Bay Cleanup Progress Threatened by Trump

U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, member of the Senate Appropriations Committee, released the following statement on the University of Maryland Center for Environmental Science's 2016 Chesapeake Bay Report Card:

"Today a new report from the University of Maryland showed the overall health of the Chesapeake Bay is improving for the second straight year. While there's still much more work to do, this demonstrates the importance of sustained federal funding for our Bay cleanup efforts. I'm pleased to say that just last week Congress passed a budget plan that included funding for the Chesapeake Bay Program. The Trump Administration budget proposes to eliminate funding for this vital program in the coming fiscal year, staring October 1, 2017. That would undermine our progress. I look forward to working on a bipartisan basis to defeat the Trump budget cuts so we can continue to improve the health of the Bay. The Bay is not only a natural treasure, it is vital to our tourism and boating industries, as well as the watermen and others whose livelihood depends on the bounty of a healthy Bay."