Senator Jeff Irwin

State Senator Jeff Irwin

1 day ago

Michigan Republicans passed their budget proposal this week. They cut funds for education, healthcare, and environmental protection.

As Chair of the Senate subcommittee focused on environmental protection, here is a closer look at Republicans’ proposals for protecting clean air and water and for preventing flooding or higher water bills.

For starters, Michigan needs to fix our sewers, our drinking water systems, and our dams. There is federal money available to states for water infrastructure improvements. Michigan Republicans inexplicably propose leaving hundreds of millions of federal dollars in DC by failing to match those federal dollars. Not only that, these dollars put thousands of people to work fixing this critical infrastructure and the federal and state support help keep water bills lower. (The budget would cut the line from $390M to $93M. They would also be turning down approximately over $300M in federal funding for the Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) and the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF) programs.)

Several cuts were also made throughout the budget that will harm cleanup activities, ongoing remediation of contaminated materials, redevelopment activities, and potentially endanger public health. Specifically, Republicans propose cutting:

1. Renew Michigan funding is cut $43.7M. This funding supports environmental remediation necessary to protect public health and the environment, including assistance with brownfields and superfund sites.

2. Superfund Cleanup is slashed from $9M to $482,100. EGLE implements the Superfund Program in partnership with the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to clean up hazardous waste sites as well as spills and other releases.

3. Emergency cleanup is reduced from $2M to $223,200, reducing the available pool of funds for quick response should an environmental emergency occur.

4. Contaminated Site Remediation and Redevelopment is recommended to be cut by $24.3M, stopping site cleanup and redevelopment of polluted sites all over Michigan (we have 27,000 identified, half of which have been orphaned and are now the responsibility of taxpayers.)

5. The Underground Storage Tank Authority line is cut by $10M. The unit provides financial assistance to remediate contamination caused by releases from petroleum underground storage tanks.

Taken together, these cuts are a massive slap in the face to Michigan. The Republican budget disrespects our health and our Great Lakes. Furthermore, the Republicans’ budget is a massive job killer, halts redevelopment and investment in our communities, and ignores the increasing problems residents face with high water bills and flooding. ... See MoreSee Less

State Senator Jeff Irwin

4 days ago

In the Senate Housing and Human Services Committee we took testimony on the increasing rates of homelessness and what can be done to support people and their families in crisis.

With federal housing cuts and an economy where wage growth is stagnant and prices are rising, more people are struggling to keep their housing.

michiganadvance.com/2026/04/21/staggering-mismatch-between-housing-need-and-supply-in-michigan-ad... ... See MoreSee Less