NASA, Great Lakes, Special Olympics, Florida Everglades: Trump announces tweaks to proposed budget
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}President Trump on Monday announced tweaks he’s making to his proposed budget, though it’s unclear how the government would pay for the new spending requests.
Trump tweeted he's adding $1.6 billion to NASA’s budget “so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!”
“Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars,” Trump wrote.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}This summer marks the 50th anniversary of the first manned moon landing, as The Verge reported.
Vice President Mike Pence has called for landing astronauts on the moon within five years, and has said NASA needs to achieve that goal “by any means necessary.”
Trump previously had announced plans to reverse several of his administration’s own budget proposals, including efforts to gut federal funding for a wide-ranging Great Lakes cleanup program.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}“We must protect our Great Lakes, keeping them clean and beautiful for future generations,” he tweeted Monday.
Trump told a rally crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in March that he was reversing course on the proposed cuts and would support allocating $300 million this year for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative after three Republican lawmakers from the state lobbied him during a ride from the Grand Rapids airport.
SCALISE: DEMOCRATS WILL WANT TO PAY FOR INFRASTRUCTURE WITH MORE TAXES
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump’s initial budget proposal had sought to cut the program’s federal financing by 90 percent.
Trump also announced he would be reversing his budget’s call to slash $17.6 million in funding for the Special Olympics in the face of criticism from Capitol Hill.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Trump tweeted Monday that he had “officially updated my budget to include $18 million for our GREAT @SpecialOlympics, whose athletes inspire us and make our Nation so PROUD!”
Trump also said he would push for $200 million for Army Corps of Engineers restoration work in the Florida Everglades this year, calling on Congress “to help us complete the world’s largest intergovernmental watershed restoration project ASAP!”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.