• Educating Voters
  • Lobby & Advocacy
  • People for Puget Sound
The giant salmon and orca were props, but the eagle and outrage were real at a rally for Puget Sound on Wednesday on the waterfront of Elliott Bay.

“That eagle is here for us,” said Jim Rasmussen of the Duwamish Tribe, pointing to an eagle over the bay as he kicked off a demonstration convened by advocates for Puget Sound to push back against deep cuts in environmental programs proposed by President Donald Trump.

Becky Kelley, president of the Washington Environmental Council, said Puget Sound advocates need the Washington State Legislature to step up to backfill the cuts in EPA funds. Gov. Jay Inslee’s budget request to the Legislature provided $907,000 for that purpose, but the GOP budget released by the Senate did not do so.

The Senate budget also does not address a continuing funding crisis to clean up more than 5,000 contaminated sites around the state under the citizen-initiated Model Toxics Control Act, Kelley said.

“They are failing to step up and fill the holes,” she said of Senate budget writers.