The $1.1 trillion year-end budget package President Barack Obama signed Friday includes a small boost for a program that helps the Indian River Lagoon.
The budget gives $1.6 million more to the National Estuary Program, created in the 1987 Clean Water Act, to restore water qualities in 28 estuaries nationwide. That elevated the program’s total budget to $26.7 million annually.
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson, D-Orlando, added the increase with a budget amendment that shifted money within the Environmental Protection Agency budget toward the program.
The Indian River Lagoon National Estuary Program’s goals for 2015-16 includes restoring finfish and shellfish, providing information on the impact of climate change on the estuary, upgrading stormwater systems to reduce polluted runoff and encouraging the proper use of fertilizers.
Grayson is running against U.S. Rep. Patrick Murphy, D-Jupiter, for the U.S. Senate. Murphy has made the lagoon a platform of his two successful House campaigns. Murphy represents Martin, St. Lucie and northern Palm Beach counties.
The House in June passed a bill by Murphy and Republican Rep. Bill Posey, who represents Indian River County, to create grants within the estuary program for projects that fight ecological threats to waterways, such as jellyfish proliferation and invasive exotic species. The Senate still has to act on it.
Murphy and Grayson voted for the omnibus budget bill, which came out of a bipartisan agreement to keep the government funded until next year. Posey was among 95 Republican who voted against it, saying in a statement it doesn’t address the national debt, continue to fund Planned Parenthood and support the climate deal Obama reached this week.