The U.S Senate is taking up budget bills this week that include funding for marine resources programs at the University of Maine.
President Donald Trump had proposed eliminating the $68 million National Sea Grant Program. But the Senate Appropriations Committee, on which Republican U.S. Sen. Susan Collins serves, went in the other direction, allocating an additional $7 million to the program that funds marine research at UMaine.
“The bill prioritizes the development of technologies to better track the right whale population,” Collins says. “Within the Sea Grant Program there is $2 million for critical lobster research, building on the $2 million that was included last year.”
If approved by the Senate, the budget bills will have to be reconciled with the House versions.
