Congress Approves More Bay Funding Than White House Sought

Rebuffing deep spending cuts proposed by the Trump administration, Congress has approved more funding for Chesapeake Bay cleanup and conservation than the White House requested —including boosts for restoring oysters, dealing with invasive blue catfish and addressing whether menhaden, an important forage fish in the Bay, are being overfished.

By a vote of 82-15, the U.S. Senate gave overwhelming, bipartisan approval Thursday to a trio of spending bills that included funding for the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and the Commerce, Justice, Energy and Interior departments through the end of September. With the House having passed the package on Jan. 8, the measures now go to the White House for President Trump’s signature.

The bills do reduce overall spending at the affected agencies, but by far less than proposed by the White House Office of Management and Budget. And lawmakers actually increased spending on some science-related programs and projects.

Notably, Congress approved record-high funding of $93 million for EPA’s Chesapeake Bay Program, the federal-state partnership that coordinates pollution reduction and habitat restoration efforts in the estuary and its rivers and streams.

After failed attempts in the first Trump administration to eliminate or deeply cut Bay Program funding, the White House had proposed level funding for fiscal 2026 at $92 million. But Congress boosted it by $1 million, in the process increasing allocations for grants awarded to states and communities for addressing polluted runoff and degraded streams.

Lawmakers threw fiscal lifelines to federal science agencies, which had been targeted for severe reductions by the White House, including the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Within the NOAA budget are the following Bay-related allotments:

• $3.25 million for oyster restoration, a $1.5 million increase over the previous funding level. NOAA has worked with Maryland and Virginia and other federal agencies and nonprofit groups to rebuild the Bay’s historically depleted oyster population, conducting bottom surveys to help select restoration sites and supporting hatcheries to produce juvenile oysters for planting on rebuilt reefs.

• $2 million for Maryland to address invasive blue catfish, which since their introduction to  Virginia freshwater habitats in the 1970s have spread throughout the Bay and are suspected of impacting populations of native fish.

• $2.5 million for a study of Atlantic menhaden abundance in the Bay, an important forage fish that helps sustain other species, including striped bass and ospreys. Scientists have proposed investigating whether menhaden need protection from a Virginia-based fishing fleet that harvests them for processing into animal feed and human dietary supplements. Virginia lawmakers have repeatedly declined to fund such a study.

• $8.7 million for NOAA’s Bay Watershed Education and Training Program, which provides grants for teacher training and hands-on education for students about the Chesapeake Bay and its tributaries.

Also included in the “minibus” spending package are the following Bay-related provisions:

• $17.6 million for the U.S. Geological Survey to continue monitoring and analysis of water quality in the six-state Bay watershed. Congress also kept ecosystem research at USGS largely intact. The White House had proposed to cut it 90%, but lawmakers trimmed it by only about 2%. With labs in Maryland and West Virginia, the agency’s Eastern Ecological Science Center studies issues such as invasive blue catfish, chemical contamination, climate change and land use.

• $8 million for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s Chesapeake WILD program, which distributes grants to communities and nonprofit groups for conserving and restoring wildlife and aquatic habitat.

• $3 million for the U.S. National Park Service’s Chesapeake Gateways program, which in prior years has awarded grants to state and local government and nonprofit groups for projects that “highlight the natural, cultural, recreational, and historical significance of the Chesapeake region.”

Kristin Reilly, director of the Choose Clean Water Coalition, representing more than 300 local, state, regional and national advocacy groups, declared she was “very pleased with the strong funding levels for Bay restoration” approved by Congress. She said she was particularly glad to see increases in EPA’s Bay Program grants for on-the-ground projects to improve local waterways and communities.

“From planting trees to protecting homes and businesses from flooding, these projects make a difference,” she said.

U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, the ranking Democrat on the Senate subcommittee that crafted the spending package, said he had “fought to reject the Trump administration’s attacks on science,” noting that NOAA and other science-related agencies had significant operations in Maryland.

“Our bill makes clear that Congress, on a bipartisan basis, will not accept this Administration’s reckless, harmful cuts,” he added.

What remains to be seen, though, is whether the Trump administration will restore cuts already made and spend what Congress has now formally approved. Until now Republican leaders have largely acquiesced to steps taken by the administration to rescind or reduce previously awarded grants and to close congressionally authorized programs and offices. Lawsuits challenging some of the administration’s actions have yet to be decided.