U.S. Sens. Mazie Hirono and Brian Schatz and four of their colleagues have written to the federal Office of Management and Budget to ask that President Donald Trump’s administration reconsider proposed cuts to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration that could dramatically affect the Sea Grant College Program in Hawaii.

Citing a report last week by the Washington Post, the lawmakers expressed “serious concern” about preliminary budget documents that suggest NOAA funding could be reduced by 17 percent and federal Sea Grant funding could be wiped out.

The $73 million Sea Grant program has branches at 33 universities across the nation, including the University of Hawaii.

Sea Grant is a federal-state partnership designed to identify critical resource management issues and engage in scientific research to address those challenges. The program in Hawaii receives $1.8 million in federal money per year, which is matched by about $900,000 in state funding. University employees in the program also apply for research grant funding.

The overall budget for the Hawaii program including grants runs between $3 million and $8 million a year, which supports about 40 faculty and staff, said Darren Lerner, director of Sea Grant at UH.

Among other projects, Sea Grant has studied the economic value of Waikiki Beach, concluding that the value of the beach to the Hawaii economy is $2 billion a year. The program also joined in a major project with the Waikiki Improvement Association that involves research into beach management for those critically important stretches of sand.

Other research by the program deals with the long-term impacts and values of sea walls, and educational efforts to teach coastal residents how to cope with natural hazards including threats posed by rising sea levels.

The letter signed by Hirono and Schatz said the Sea Grant program had an economic impact of $575 million across the nation and created or sustained close to 3,000 businesses and 21,000 jobs annually.

The letter was also signed by U.S. Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Angus King (I-Maine).