The Chesapeake Bay Foundation is asking the head of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to support Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin's restoration bill.

Foundation president Will Baker made the request in a letter to EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson, who takes over as chair of the Chesapeake Executive Council on Tuesday. The council sets policy for the Chesapeake Bay Program, the joint federal-state effort that has led restoration efforts.

Baker told Jackson only 18 of 53 members of Congress from bay watershed states are co-sponsors and urged her to lobby for passage. The EPA is developing a restoration strategy in response to a presidential order. Cardin's bill, meanwhile, would reauthorize the bay program, and contains measures such as a cap-and-trade program for nitrogen and phosphorous pollution credits.

Baker says it will require pollution cuts and ensure compliance.