Trump budget would kill Sea Grant funds, end Great Lakes coastal research

DETROIT — A Trump administration proposal to slash Great Lakes restoration funding has garnered plenty of attention. But the budget proposal also calls for eliminating the Sea Grant program nationwide, including a joint program between the University of Michigan and Michigan State University that has provided Great Lakes research and advocacy for nearly 50 years.

"It was a shock," said Michigan Sea Grant Director James Diana, a professor in U-M's School of Natural Resources and Environment.

As reported Saturday by the Washington Post, the proposed budget cuts were laid out in a memo outlining the fiscal year 2018 federal budget from the White House Office of Management and Budget. They're proposed as part of deep cuts at the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which administers the Sea Grant program. They include cuts of more than 20% at the National Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research and NOAA's satellite data division — organizations involved in the examination of climate change and its global impacts.

The Sea Grant program, which conducts coastal research through 33 university programs nationwide, costs $73 million annually. Diana noted that's a little more than 0.1% of the $54 billion in increased defense spending proposed by Trump.

"I'm surprised they went at such a small program at this point in their budget," Diana said. "It seems like a small thing for them to be looking at."

Messages left with White House officials were not returned Tuesday.

The cuts were proposed in a "passback" document, a process by which the administration directs cabinet departments to prepare budgets for submission to Congress. It's an early step in a process Congress will most certainly work to shape and modify.

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The Office of Management and Budget's passback said that the administration wanted to “prioritize rebuilding the military” and would seek “savings and efficiencies to keep the nation on a responsible fiscal path,” the Post reported. It said that the proposed funding cut for the Commerce Department “highlights the trade-offs and choices inherent in pursuing these goals.”

The Michigan Sea Grant was established in 1969. It received $1.8 million from NOAA in the 2016 fiscal year, along with matching funds from U-M and MSU. It employs 23 people around the state, in research, education and outreach missions.

Projects include the Sustainable Small Harbors program that works with coast communities to help them become economically, socially and environmentally sustainable; a program to help Great Lakes fish processors comply with federal regulations regarding seafood safety, and a Dangerous Currents program providing beach safety signs and outreach across the state.

Sea Grant has worked with shoreline communities to meet requirements for five-year management plans on their state-funded boating facilities, helping secure grants to improve facilities and prepare for the future, Diana said. Boating draws $2.4 billion in economic activity to Michigan each year, according to Sea Grant research.

The agency has also worked with communities on identifying and overcoming impediments to installing green infrastructure, and proposes research identifying migratory fish in rivers and streams as they come in from the Great Lakes, to better understand the populations of fish out in the lakes, Diana said.

"We tend to try to do the work that isn't being done by other organizations, like the state DNR, USGS or NOAA," he said. "We try to fill in the gaps where they don't do things."

Sea Grant also conducts an annual Seafood Summit in Michigan, highlighting the state's commercial fisheries, aquaculture and local seafood.

"A large part of what we do is promoting business in coastal communities," Diana said, "which seems to be right in line with our current president's interests, in terms of where he wants to see America go."

The National Association of Clean Air Agencies confirmed for the Free Press last Thursday that an initial proposal from the passback document calls for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative to be cut from $300 million a year to about $10 million. If it were to occur, it would decimate a program that has helped pay to restore wetlands and improve water quality across the upper Midwest.

The cut was first reported by Rob Davis, a reporter for the Oregonian, who tweeted a list of potential cuts — none of which have been finalized.

Michigan lawmakers, both Democrat and Republican, pushed back on the proposed cuts.

"The Sea Grant program is a vital resource that helps build public-private partnerships between our universities, local communities and harbor and marina owners that help boost economic activity, control coastal erosion and even eliminate toxic chemicals at harbors all along Michigan’s lakeshores," said Democratic U.S. Sen. Gary Peters, D-Mich. "Eliminating this program would do a severe disservice to the communities in Michigan’s 41 coastal counties that rely on the resources provided by the Sea Grant program to improve Michigan’s waterways."

Trump’s proposed cuts would hurt Michigan, Democratic U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich., said.

"We depend on this funding to keep boaters and swimmers safe and our northern border secure. NOAA funding also supports advanced research that protects our Great Lakes, fisheries and wildlife habitats," she said.

U.S. Rep. Fred Upton, R-Mich., called the proposed cuts "alarming."

"We have previously communicated with the new administration that our Great Lakes must be a priority and the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative must be fully funded," he said. "Congress will have the final say on budgetary matters, and we are only at the first step in the appropriations process which actually funds the program."

The Trump administration has also moved to delay a tentative plan to address the threat of invasive Asian carp moving closer to Lake Michigan up the Mississippi and Illinois rivers.

The plan for the Brandon Road Lock and Dam near Joliet, Ill., was set to be released Feb. 28 by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, an important step toward finalizing a project that was expected to call for barriers at a key choke-point on a Chicago-area river.

But a government source with knowledge of the project told the Free Press that the plan was ordered delayed while the White House reviews it, even though it's been under way for years. Business and shipping interests have aligned against the project, as have some Illinois state officials and other members of Congress who say it could hamper inland navigation. Many scientists say Asian carp arrival in the Great Lakes would cause ecological chaos, harming the habitats of the large game fish critical to Michigan's boating and fishing industries.

Diana and other Michigan Sea Grant officials were already scheduled to meet with lawmakers in Washington this week, before news of the proposed cuts came out. Those talks will now take on more urgency, he said.

"From my point of view, the amount of money we spent, it's a very effective way of using that money," he said.

Follow Keith Matheny on Twitter: @keithmatheny. Contributing: Todd Spangler.