Congressional stopgap spending bill includes $8M for Long Island Sound program

The stopgap spending bill before Congress that will fund the federal government through September includes $8 million in federal funding of the Long Island Sound preservation program.

According to a statement issued by U.S. Sen. Chris Murphy”™s office, the funding requested in the Omnibus Appropriations bill is more than $4 million higher than last year”™s federal funding level.

“Doubling the money for the Long Island Sound program this year will go a long way towards better protecting the ecological treasure,” said Murphy, a Democrat from Cheshire. “This $8 million will be used to improve Long Island Sound and it will ultimately inject money right back into the local economy along Connecticut”™s shoreline.”

Last month, the bipartisan Long Island Sound Restoration and Stewardship Act co-sponsored by Murphy and his Connecticut colleague Sen. Richard Blumenthal was passed in the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee in a unanimous vote, and is now awaiting debate and a vote in the full Senate.