After last summer, our community knows far too well what environmental disaster looks like.

The great news is that this week we passed a bill that includes over $150 million to directly help the Everglades and our coastal environment, including my amendments to combat harmful algal blooms.

The bill includes $82 million for Herbert Hoover Dike rehabilitation and $76.5 million for South Florida ecosystem restoration. The bill also includes two amendments I wrote to increase funding for the Environmental Sustainability Development Project under the Naval Research Laboratory and the Aquatic Plant Control Research Program - two programs that are critical to researching and developing technology that could help remove algal blooms.

More about the amendments:

Department of the Navy Research Laboratory - $598,000
The Environmental Sustainability Development Project under the Naval Research Laboratory works on coastal contamination and contaminated sediments. Funding for this program was originally cut in the proposed Department of Defense appropriations bill by $598,000 compared to FY2017 enacted levels. My amendment successfully restored the program to full funding.

The Aquatic Plant Control Research Program - $500,000
My amendment increased funding by $500,000 for the Aquatic Plant Control Research Program, which is the nation’s only federally authorized research program directed to develop technology for the management of non-indigenous aquatic plant species, such as harmful algal blooms.

But our work is far from done, which is why I will continue my fight in Congress to build a southern reservoir and take every possible step to clean up our water.