Thursday Top of the Scroll: Federal government restores funding for fish that Trump loves to loathe
The federal government has restored funding for a captive breeding program designed to ensure survival of California’s delta smelt, even as President Donald Trump has sharpened criticism of the endangered fish. A five-year grant for the UC Davis Fish Conservation and Culture Laboratory in Contra Costa County, which raises the smelt, expired last month, and many believed the funding would not be reinstated. Eleven of the lab’s 17 employees were let go. This week, the U.S. Bureau of Reclamation and UC Davis confirmed that the federal funding, which makes up about three-quarters of the lab’s budget, would resume. Why the financing lapsed and why it ultimately returned amid the widespread funding cuts initiated by the Trump administration over the past two months was not immediately clear.
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