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Rubio: “Everglades Restoration is the single best way to improve Florida’s water quality and environment. This year the President agreed to our request to increase it to $250 million. The next step is to once again work with the entire Florida delegation and use my role on the spending committee to get it done.”
Trump’s 2021 budget proposes $250 million for Everglades restoration projects
By David Smiley
February 6, 2020
Miami Herald
According to a senior administration source, Trump has included $250 million in his 2021 budget for environmental projects in the Everglades.
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The money, if approved by Congress, would be an increase of the historic $200 million appropriated toward Everglades restoration in the current budget as part of a $1.4 trillion 2020 budget approved in December.
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[Trump’s] initial 2020 budget included $63 million toward the Everglades — one-third of what was sought by Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, a key Trump ally who has made Everglades cleanup a staple of his administration. Trump increased that amount to $200 million weeks later following a visit to Lake Okeechobee and lobbying by South Florida water managers, DeSantis and other Republicans, including U.S. Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.
Last week, Rubio, Scott and Republican U.S. Rep. Brian Mast wrote letters to Trump, asking him to increase the federal money flowing to the River of Grass. In their letter, Rubio and Scott asked Trump to put the money toward South Florida Ecosystem Restoration, a suite of water management projects intended to clean the water from Lake Okeechobee and restore a more natural flow to the Everglades.
“Everglades Restoration is the single best way to improve Florida’s water quality and environment,” Rubio said in a statement, noting his efforts to secure the $200 million in the 2020 budget passed by congress. “This year the President agreed to our request to increase it to $250 million. The next step is once again work the entire Florida delegation and use my role on the spending committee to get it done.”
The proposed funding would go to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, which is working with the state to create a $1.6 billion reservoir to help store excess polluted water from Lake Okeechobee.
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Trump’s budget also includes a $15 million program intended to help predict and prevent severe algae blooms.
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At a pace of $200 million a year, the Army Corps has said the reservoir project could be completed in eight years. The state project is slated for completion in half that time.
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