Committee to review Bishop bill overhauling LWCF

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Published: Monday, November 16, 2015

This story was updated at 4:06 p.m. EST.

The House Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday will review a draft bill to overhaul the Land and Water Conservation Fund, a major step in what’s become a testy debate over how to reauthorize the widely popular, but expired, program.

Members will review a draft measure by committee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) that would funnel a greater portion of LWCF money to states to invest in projects like ballparks, boat ramps and trails, while setting strict limits on the purchase of new federal lands.

LWCF, whose 50-year authorization expired Sept. 30, allowed appropriators to spend up to $900 million on federal land acquisition, state recreation grants, conservation easements and wildlife conservation. The law required at least 40 percent of the money go to federal purposes and allowed appropriators to decide how to divvy up the rest.

Bishop’s bill would require at least 45 percent of LWCF money be used for stateside grants and allow no more than 3.5 percent be used for federal land acquisition. In addition, it would require at least 20 percent of the money be used to promote offshore oil and gas development and workforce development and send 15 percent to rural counties.

Bishop’s bill has drawn praise from state park advocates and fiscal conservatives, though it was widely criticized by conservationists, sportsmen’s groups, Democrats and certain pro-LWCF Republicans.

Bishop has argued the program’s current funding ratio — which has resulted in states receiving roughly 12 percent of the funding pie — is “lopsided” and has allowed the administration and Congress to “vastly expand the federal estate.”

“Even more troubling on the federal side is that the money is being spent with little transparency, scant oversight and minimal local input,” Bishop said earlier this month.

Bishop has defended spending LWCF on oil and gas development, noting that most of LWCF’s funding comes from offshore mineral royalties and that the industry has an aging workforce.

But conservation groups and some Republicans say Bishop’s bill would undermine LWCF’s core purpose of conserving lands and promoting recreation.

“His rewrite represents a radical departure from the fundamental values and stewardship ethic on which LWCF is based, and his attempt to pawn this off as some sort of revision must be rejected,” said David Jenkins, president of Conservatives for Responsible Stewardship, a Republican environmental group.

Wednesday’s hearing is expected to attract both supporters and opponents of the measure.

Kris Sarri, who President Obama has nominated to be Interior assistant secretary for policy, management and budget, will be sharing the administration’s position on the draft.

Christy Goldfuss, managing director of the White House Council on Environmental Quality, toldE&E Daily earlier this month that on first blush, Bishop’s bill “does not stick to the principles of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.”

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Rep. Bishop requested $500K for land acquisition in Utah

Phil Taylor, E&E reporter

Published: Friday, November 13, 2015

Article updated at 4:19 p.m.

House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) in 2009 requested that $500,000 be spent to acquire federal lands at the Bear River Migratory Bird Refuge in his district, according to a House Appropriations Committee report.

The request is notable considering Bishop has recently introduced a draft bill that would significantly curb land acquisitions under the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which has served as the government’s main program for buying new lands for the past 50 years (Greenwire, Nov. 5).

Congress allowed LWCF to expire Sept. 30 and is currently debating how to reauthorize it. A key sticking point is how much of the program’s $900 million funding ceiling may be spent on federal land acquisition compared to state recreation grants and other non-federal projects.

The Bear River refuge, which is located in Bishop’s 1st District, consists of 80,000 acres of marsh, open waters, uplands and mud flats, and is among wetlands surrounding Great Salt Lake that provides key habitat for hundreds of species of migrating birds.

President Obama in his 2010 budget request asked that Congress appropriate $500,000 to acquire lands at the refuge.

Bishop is listed as a “requester” of this money in the Appropriations Committee’s report on its spending bill, which passed by voice vote in June 2009 while the committee was in Democratic control. It suggests that Bishop, too, found merit in the project.

A Bishop spokeswoman did not respond to a request for comment. The congressman was not the Natural Resources Committee chairman at the time of the request.

About 2,800 acres at Bear River have been acquired using LWCF funds, including over 2,000 in the past five years alone, according to the National Wildlife Refuge Association.

Such purchases would be greatly curtailed under Bishop’s bill to reform LWCF.

The draft measure, which will get a hearing Wednesday before Bishop’s committee, would allow no more than 3.5 percent of LWCF funds go to federal land acquisitions. Currently, roughly half of LWCF money goes to federal land purchases.

In addition, Bishop’s bill would allow no more than 15 percent of the purchased acreage be located in the West.

“When the federal government purchases new land with federal acquisition dollars under LWCF, the land is thrown on top of the heap of numerous other federal lands in desperate need of repairs and restoration,” Bishop wrote in a May op-ed in the magazine of the National Recreation and Park Association.