FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 16, 2017
Sierra Club Statement on Trump Budget Cuts to Great Lakes Restoration Initiative
LANSING, MI - Today, the Trump Administration released its 2018 budget proposals for discretionary spending. Among those proposals, Donald Trump has proposed a complete elimination of the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.
In response to today's news, Gail Philbin, Director of the Sierra Club's Michigan Chapter, released the following statement:
"President Trump's proposal to completely eliminate all funding for Great Lakes protection and cleanup programs is a shocking abandonment of crucial, successful efforts to protect our drinking water and the most important natural asset for our entire region.
"Budgets are much more than numbers, they are statements of values and priorities. By hitting the delete button on all federal efforts to protect the Great Lakes, President Trump is telling our entire region that our health is not his priority. By cutting Great Lakes protection, President Trump is cutting good jobs in water infrastructure projects, he is cutting the cleanup of toxic pollution in our drinking water, and he is cutting off hope for communities that rely on these resources.
"Protecting our Great Lakes has long been a bipartisan priority for our region's leaders. Trump's Great Lakes cuts should be dead on arrival for all members of Congress from our region. We are ready to work with all of the people and communities of our region to resist and reverse Trump's cuts, and continue the critical work to clean up and restore the Great Lakes that are so important to all of us."
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