House committee advances vital conservation funding law
House committee boosts prospects for permanent, dedicated funding of vital conservation law
WASHINGTON, June 19, 2019 ---Today the House Natural Resources Committee voted to advance H.R. 3195, a bill to provide full, dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, America’s premier program for funding conservation projects across the nation. The bill was introduced by Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-N.J.), Committee Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and is a companion to S. 1081 in the Senate.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund, instituted more than 50 years ago, was created to offset the use and damage to public resources from offshore oil drilling, at no expense to the taxpayer. H.R. 3195 provides stable and consistent funding which will help ensure that ready-to-go, well-vetted conservation projects and critical needs can move ahead and not stall due to inconsistent funding levels.
Statement from Jonathan Asher, Government Relations Director for Conservation Funding at The Wilderness Society
“We hear all the time how businesses need long-term certainty and stability when it comes to government policy. Local communities and complex conservation projects need the same thing. The current system of annually fluctuating funding means that ready-to-go projects don’t get accomplished because of the ever-shifting winds on Capitol Hill. Stable funding, or ‘mandatory funding’ in DC speak, is a common approach that’s broadly supported by Republicans and Democrats alike when it comes to our national parks backlog or funds that maintain our nation’s coastal shipping harbors, among many other examples. With increased pressures on our public lands from ever-growing populations and climate change, stable and consistent funding is needed now more than ever.”
This historic program promises vital benefits for future conservation needs, including ways to deal with the climate crisis and wildfires as well as the demand for better access to our public lands.
Earlier this year, Congress approved and the president signed into law the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act (Dingell Act) to permanently reauthorize LWCF. H.R. 3195 builds on the Dingell Act by ensuring that funds already being deposited into the LWCF account in the U.S. Treasury for LWCF – $900 million annually – are invested only in the conservation of our country’s natural, cultural and historic treasures.
LWCF rarely gets funded at its authorized amount, and often its funds are diverted for other purposes. Since the program was created in 1964, the conservation fund has received its authorized funding level only twice. Over the program’s 50-year history, about $22 billion intended for LWCF has been siphoned off from the fund for non-conservation purposes.
The Wilderness Society, founded in 1935, is the leading conservation organization working to protect wilderness and inspire Americans to care for our wild places. With more than one million members and supporters, The Wilderness Society has led the effort to permanently protect 111 million acres of wilderness and to ensure sound management of our shared national lands. www.wilderness.org.
