On March 25, President 
Donald Trump expressed 
support for the Great Lakes 
Restoration 
Initiative 
to be fully funded in a 
Grand Rapids rally. This 
turnaround came after an 
initial 90 percent budget cut 
for the initiative as outlined 
in the 2020 budget plan for 
congressional approval just 
weeks before. In the 2020 
budget plan released March 
11, Trump proposed to cut 
the 
$300-million 
Great 
Lakes Restoration Initiative 
by $270 million.
During the Grand Rapids 
rally last Thursday, Trump 
said he would get funding 
for the initiative because he 
supports the Great Lakes.
“I 
support 
the 
Great 
Lakes,” Trump said. “Always 
have. They are beautiful. 
They are big, very deep. 

Record deepness, right? And 
I’m going to get, in honor of 
my friends, full funding of 
$300 million for the Great 
Lakes Restoration Initiative, 
which you’ve been trying to 
get for over 30 years.” 
The 
Great 
Lakes 
Restoration Initiative was 
started in 2010 and received 
$475 million in 2010 at 
the peak of the program’s 
funding. According to the 
Initiative’s website, GLRI 
has 
received 
a 
funding 
amount of at least $283.5 
million annually until 2017.
In 
the 
president’s 
initial 2020 budget for the 
Environmental 
Protection 
Agency, the 2020 budget 
for GLRI is reduced to $30 
million, a 90-percent cut of 
$270 million from its $300 
million budget for 2019.
Michigan 
state 
Rep. 
Yousef Rabhi, D-Ann Arbor, 
condemned 
the 
initial 
budget cut for GLRI and 
Special Olympics in a phone 

interview with The Daily. 
“The 
budget 
(Trump) 
proposed 
is 
full 
of 
problems,” Rabhi said. “Not 
just the elimination of the 

Great Lakes Restoration 
Initiative monies, but 
also the reduction of 
the 
Special 
Olympics 
funds.”
Despite so, a fully 
funded GLRI bodes well 
for bipartisan support 
of 
environmental 
protection 
but 
still 
attracts worries from 
Democrats.
LSA sophomore Kate 
Nachazel, vice president 
of 
the 
University’s 
chapter 
of 
College 
Republicans, said she 
feels 
the 
change 
is 
positive.
“I’m glad he is doing 
that,” 
Nachazel 
said. 
“I think that the right 
people 
in 
the 
right 
positions put pressure 
on him.”
LSA 
sophomore 
Camille 
Mancuso, 
communications 

director for the University’s 
chapter 
of 
College 
Democrats, 
has 
concerns 
about the attitude of Trump’s 
administration 
towards 
environmental 
protection 
despite the change.
“Regardless 
that 
the 
initiative being fully funded, 
we should really be focused 
on the fact that it was 
proposed to be defunded 
altogether,” Mancuso said. 
“This 
is 
the 
president’s 
third 
attempt 
to 
cut 
funding for the Great Lakes, 
which really shows that 
protecting the environment 
… is not a priority of this 
administration.”
Rabhi agreed that despite 
a 
positive 
change 
for 
environmental 
protection, 
long-term 
decisions 
affecting 
many 
are 
not 
thoroughly considered by 
the administration. 
“While I am glad that we 
can use more funding for 
the Great Lakes Restoration 
Initiative, 
I 
think 
his 
inability 
to 
comprehend 
what is important and what 
isn’t,” Rabhi said.
Rabhi 
attributed 
the 
swift budget cut to the 
insufficiency of a smaller 
tax in supporting the federal 
budget.
“There (are) cuts now 
that we have to make for the 
federal budget because of 
his short-sighted tax policy 
which granted millions of 
dollars of tax breaks for 
businesses on the backs of 
our federal budget,” Rabhi 
said.
According to Rabhi, both 
the initial budget cut and the 
recovery of full funding for 
the initiative has disrupted 
people’s livelihoods.
“People’s 
jobs 
are 
on 
the line here,” Rabhi said. 
“There 
(are) 
so 
many 
implications 
this 
small, 
tiny amount of money has 
huge implications, not just 
for Michigan but all across 
Great Lake states.”

2 — Friday,April 5, 2019
The Michigan Daily — michigandaily.com
News

ALEC COHEN/Daily

In the president’s 
initial 2020 
budget for the 
Environmental 
Protection Agency, 
the 2020 budget for 
GLRI is reduced 
to $30 million, a 
90-percent cut of 
$270 million from its 
$300 million budget 
for 2019. 

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sues AG, state civil rights department”:

“Interviewing one of the leaders of the AFLC provided a lot of background information 
on the case, but the most interesting person I got to interview was probably state 
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QUOTE OF THE WE E K 

The university’s commitment to the importance of such dialogue 
for the future of our democracy underpins our interest in hosting a 
Commission on Presidential Debates event.”

University President Mark Schlissel in his letter to the Commission on Presidential Debates

Trump reverses decision on funding 
for Great Lakes Restortion Initiative

RHYMES W/ LARD puzzle by sudokusyndication.com

YIFAN YU
Daily Staff Reporter

“

President had originally proposed to cut budget from $300 million by $270 million

