February 26, 2018 — WASHINGTON — Bob Rheault, executive director of the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association, expects a warm welcome from all of the members of Congress he sees when he visits here this week to argue for preservation of the US Sea Grant program among other things.

That was how he was received when he made a similar trip to Capitol Hill roughly a year ago, after President Donald Trump first advocated for zeroing out the funds, he said.

“As we walked around the Hill, all of the East Coast state congressmen we visited pointed out to us that Congress decides the budget, not the president,” he said, adding: “I feel optimistic.”

The White House again has put the Sea Grant program on the chopping block, advocating for the elimination of its $72 million in federal funds from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s fiscal 2019 budget along with a number of other science measures, including especially those related to climate change.

In all, the Trump administration wants to cut 20% from NOAA’s $5.7 billion budget, leaving it with $4.6 bn in fiscal 2019, which starts on Oct. 1, 2018.

So Rheault — along with 16 of his colleagues from the East Coast shellfish community and some friends from the Pacific Coast Shellfish Growers Association — will again be asking lawmakers to spare the program. Together they’ll log 40 meetings with agency and congressional offices as part of what is commonly referred to in Washington as a “fly-in.”

The program’s champions will get another chance to visit with members of Congress when James Hurley, the Sea Grant Association president, leads a group of university Sea Grant leaders to the Hill in conjunction with SGA’s March 7-8 meeting in Washington. Hurley is also head of the program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison.

Read the full story at Undercurrent News