The Trump administration wants to shift money for Pell Grants for college education to fund new spending, including a NZ$2.4 billion bump for NASA to return American astronauts to the moon by 2024.
Under a budget amendment sent to Congress today, the administration would use an additional NZ$2.8 billion in surplus Pell Grant money to fund other budget priorities, including an infusion of new cash for NASA "so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!" President Donald Trump tweeted.
Today, I officially updated my budget to include $18 million for our GREAT @SpecialOlympics, whose athletes inspire us and make our Nation so PROUD!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019
Mr Trump told a rally crowd in Grand Rapids, Michigan, in March that he was reversing course on the proposed cuts and would support allocating NZ$455 million this year for the Great Lakes Restoration Initiative after three Republican lawmakers from the state lobbied him during a ride from the Grand Rapids airport.
Mr Trump's initial budget proposal had sought to cut the program's federal financing by 90 per cent.
Mr Trump also announced that day that he would be reversing his budget's call to slash NZ$26.7 million in funding for the Special Olympics in the face of withering criticism from Capitol Hill.
Mr Trump tweeted today that he had "officially updated my budget to include NZ$27.3 million for our GREAT @SpecialOlympics, whose athletes inspire us and make our Nation so PROUD!"
And Mr Trump said he would push for NZ$303.5 million for Army Corps of Engineers restoration work in the Florida Everglades this year, calling on Congress "to help us complete the world's largest intergovernmental watershed restoration project ASAP!"Under my Administration, we are restoring @NASA to greatness and we are going back to the Moon, then Mars. I am updating my budget to include an additional $1.6 billion so that we can return to Space in a BIG WAY!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 13, 2019
In a letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi formally requesting the changes, Mr Trump said they were "necessary" to correctly reflect his administration's priorities and would not require any new discretionary spending beyond his earlier request.
