Florida leaders are calling for more money for Everglades restoration in President Donald Trump’s budget proposal unveiled this week.
The spending is cut to $63 million, short of the $200 million requested by state leaders including Gov. Ron DeSantis and Sens. Marco Rubio and Rick Scott.
John Campbell of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers in Jacksonville says the spending funds projects throughout the Central and South Florida watershed.
“We’ve got a reservoir that continues to be constructed east of Lake Okeechobee. We’ve got the Kissimmee River restoration that continues north of Lake Okeechobee south of Orlando. And then the South Florida Water Management District is doing some work on a reservoir west of Lake Okeechobee.”
Environmental groups joined with Rubio and Scott and Reps. Brian Mast and Francis Rooney in criticizing the proposed Everglades restoration spending.
Presidential budgets tend to be seen as aspirational blueprints, rarely becoming enacted policy.
