Cantwell Statement on Trump Administration Withholding $500M for Fish Passage at Howard Hanson Dam

WASHINGTON, D.C. –Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA), ranking member of the Senate Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation and senior member of the Senate Finance Committee, released this statement following news that the Trump administration is withholding $500 million in planned federal funding to construct fish passage at Howard Hanson Dam.
“Constructing fish passage at Howard Hanson Dam was key to reopening at least 60 miles of prime salmon and steelhead habitat, nearly doubling Green River spawning grounds for endangered salmon and steelhead,”said Sen. Cantwell.“Withholding funding for this project is a stab in the back to tribal, commercial, and recreational fishing families. It also amounts to an abandonment of our commitment to tribal treaty rights, and ignores federal law intended to protect salmon."
In November 2021, nine members of the Washington Democratic congressional delegation led by Sen. Cantwell and Rep. Kim Schrier, M.D. (D, WA-08)sent a letterto Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works Michael Connor and Office of Management and Budget (OMB) Acting Director Shalanda Young requesting the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and OMB prioritize funding for the planned Howard A. Hanson Dam fish passage facility on the Green River as part of the $17.1 billion in funding included for the Corps in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA).
In February 2020, Sen. Cantwell joined Rep. Schrier and the entire bipartisan Washington congressional delegation insending a letterto the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and OMBrequesting funding for the dam.
Sen. Cantwell was the leading champion in securinga historic $2.855 billioninvestment in salmon recovery and ecosystem restoration programs in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law that passed in November 2021. This funding includes aCantwell-authored provisionto provide $1 billion for the U.S. Department of Transportation to create a new program aimed at removing, replacing, or restoring culverts, which enable the recovery of salmon passage and habitats.
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