Governors urge extension of LWCF
The National Governors Association today urged congressional leaders to reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund before it expires tomorrow night, marking the latest show of bipartisan support for the 50-year-old law. The governors sent a letter to the leaders of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources and House Natural Resources committees, warning that expiration would create funding uncertainties for states that receive grant money from LWCF.”Governors have used LWCF matching grants through the state assistance program for decades to fund parks and other outdoor recreation initiatives, and this program has been an instrumental tool for states to address their conservation needs,” said the letter signed by Wyoming Gov. Matt Mead (R), chairman of NGA’s natural resources committee, and California Gov. Jerry Brown (D), the panel’s vice chairman.
The governors also issued a set of recommendations for LWCF’s reauthorization, including full, guaranteed funding at LWCF’s maximum $900 million annually; increasing the allocation of money to LWCF’s state assistance program; and authorization for states to use LWCF money to purchase farmland conservation easements. LWCF, which appears likely to expire for the first time since 1965, will likely be a discussion topic for Democrats at a hearing tomorrow of the Natural Resources Committee. Mead is one of four Western governors set to testify about states’ roles in managing wildlife and energy production.
Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) is opposing reauthorization of LWCF without reforms that would send a greater portion of funds to states for local recreation projects, as the program was originally designed. It initially required that 60 percent of funding go to states, but Congress nixed that requirement in the 1970s. Bishop said the fund is in no immediate danger if it expires. “Special interests that seek to hijack LWCF to continue to expand the federal estate and divert even more monies away from localities conveniently claim the world is ending on September 30th,” he said Friday in a statement. “The only thing that expires on September 30th is the ability to accrue additional revenues into the fund, which currently has an unappropriated balance of $20 billion in taxpayer dollars.”
But LWCF backers have begun writing its epitaph, since a stopgap spending bill moving through Congress contains no language to extend it and there do not appear to be any alternative legislative vehicles. Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today blasted Republicans for letting “a popular conservation program with a spotless, 50-year history of bipartisan reauthorization” expire. Expiration could have long-term ramifications, even if the fund remains sufficiently stocked for the foreseeable future, he said.
“With the program’s expiration, I fear the Republican majority will feel less pressure than ever to appropriate a dime of that money to LWCF,” he said. “With the program expiring, the outer continental shelf royalty will go into the general Treasury fund and the majority will ignore LWCF even more than it already has.”
