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Kildee, EPA workers vow to fight Trump plan to wipe out Great Lakes funding

June 13, 2017

U.S. Rep. Dan Kildee and representatives of workers at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency are promising President Trump a bare-knuckle fight over his budget that proposes to eliminate funding for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative.

Kildee, D-Flint Twp., joined representatives of two EPA employee unions, U.S. Rep. Marcy Kaptur, and a representative of the Sierra Club in campaigning against the plan to wipe out the $300 million cleanup program during a conference call with reporters Tuesday, June 13.

Overall, the president's budget calls of $2.6 billion in cuts to EPA.

"Our jobs and economy, our very way of life are in jeopardy ...," Kildee said of the spending cuts. "We are going to fight with everything we have" to prevent them from taking place.

Trump's budget is in the hands of Congress, which in May maintained the full GLRI funding in a omnibus spending bill that pays for operation of the federal government through Sept. 30.

Officials said Tuesday's push is designed to inform voters as well as influence Congress in advance of adopting the budget and expected testimony Thursday, June 15, by EPA Director Scott Pruitt.

Both members of the House of Representatives also said they are concered by the potential closure of the EPA's Region 5 office in Chicago, the office that was most directly involved in the Flint water crisis.

Robert Kaplan, Region 5 acting regional administrator, said in Flint in April that he's been assured by EPA headquarters that the agency's Chicago office would remain open but others have expressed doubts given the size of cuts to the agency.

MLive-The Flint Journal could not immediately reach an EPA official for comment on Tuesday's press call.

Felicia Chase, an EPA water enforcement officer and a union stewart for the American Federation of Government Employees, said the EPA won't be able to function if Trump's budget were adopted.

"My concern is we won't be able to be there ... the way we were in Flint," Chase said of proposed cuts.