It Could be Good News for the States LWCF program in new Congress !!
Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the likely next chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, said yesterday that he plans to reintroduce legislation to permanently reauthorize the lapsed Land and Water Conservation Fund “as soon as we’re sworn in” in early January. “Absolutely,” said the Arizona Democrat when asked whether LWCF renewal would be a stand-alone bill separate from the public lands package that spectacularly failed on the Senate floor Wednesday night (E&E Daily, Dec. 20). The 116th Congress convenes Jan. 3. Grijalva said the LWCF legislation likely will be the same deal he crafted with current Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah): permanent reauthorization, reforms to the program and no language stipulating mandatory funding (Greenwire, Sept. 13).Although Grijalva will have leverage as chairman come January and could include language fully funding LWCF at its annual authorized level of $900 million, he is cognizant of the political risks associated with potentially asking for too much.
“If the assessment is that it’s going to hold us back from getting permanent [reauthorization], then we’ll live to fight that a month or two from now,” he said. Bishop said he will continue to support the LWCF legislation he and Grijalva agreed on, as long as it contains reforms he fought for and does not include mandatory funding. Bishop’s language would allocate 40 percent of money to the fund’s stateside program, 40 percent to the federal government and 20 percent for other necessary activities that could include deferred maintenance needs.Senators have said next year’s public lands package will be the same. But Bishop is worried it won’t stay that way in a Democratic-led House. “Whether this body allows it to remain substantially the same, we will have to see,” he said. “My fear is it won’t be; it will be substantially worse.”
If Democrats add mandatory funding to the mix, “then everything is screwed up. You may even have more people doing protests and holds and filibuster issues on the Senate side.” The Senate version of the bill included language fully funding LWCF. The defeat of the public lands package over an objection from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee took down more than 100 bills, including the provision reauthorizing LWCF. “Just on our side of the aisle alone, there’s some 43 members that either have bills that they have authored or are the co-sponsor of,” Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said on the Senate floor Wednesday night. Murkowski, Bishop, Grijalva and ENR Committee ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) were the principal negotiators on the massive 680-page lands package that took years to finalize.
Lee vociferously objected to the package, complaining he didn’t see the contents of the bill until Wednesday morning and opposing past use of the LWCF to acquire more federal land. He wanted to amend the 1906 Antiquities Act to require congressional approval of new land designations in Utah — an exemption that he noted exists under the law for Alaska and Wyoming. Bishop said he talked to Lee about his fellow Utahn’s problems with the package before it fell apart, so he was disappointed but not surprised at the outcome. “The bottom line when I talked to Mr. Lee again [was] simply, it will not be a better bill in January,” said Bishop. “Obviously my arguments weren’t cogent at the time. I didn’t persuade him.” Conn Carroll, a spokesman for Lee, said the Utah senator will object to the package again next year if it’s the same. Carroll said Lee would support LWCF reauthorization if certain reforms are made to the program, including more of the fund going to states and a requirement that money cannot be used for more federal land acquisition until the current multibillion-dollar National Park Service maintenance backlog is erased. Lee next year also plans to reintroduce legislation that would tweak the Antiquities Act to carve out an exemption for Utah.
‘Sportsmen’s groups, environmental organizations, the outdoor recreation industry and veterans were among those outraged at the defeat of the public lands package and LWCF reauthorization. “Congress has failed veterans across the country by not reauthorizing LWCF,” said Garett Reppenhagen, Vet Voice Foundation Western states director. The nonprofit organization that encourages veterans to get engaged on a variety of public policy issues, including land policy and conservation, called on Congress to permanently reauthorize LWCF with “full and dedicated funding” next year. Amy Roberts, executive director of the Outdoor Industry Association, said the failure to act on the bipartisan public lands package was “shameful” and noted the $887 billion outdoor recreation economy that depends on access to public lands and waters across the country.
The sportsmen’s community, which would have benefited from increased access to hunting, fishing and recreational shooting on federal lands included in the package, also expressed disappointment. Land Tawney, president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers, placed the blame squarely on Lee. “Public lands opponent Sen. Mike Lee was instrumental in the Senate’s failure to advance the public lands package, including LWCF funding,” Tawney said in a statement to E&E News, calling the Utahn “the Grinch who stole Christmas.”
National Wildlife Federation President and CEO Collin O’Mara said the “epic failure of not reauthorizing this critical program — despite overwhelming bipartisan support — reflects the staggering level of dysfunction that pervades the Capitol.” Bishop said there were “quite a few people in Utah talking” to Lee after Wednesday night. “There were definitely some people with questions,” Carroll said when asked what Lee was hearing from people in Utah about his objection to the lands package. “But the people he’s talked to understand this was a bad deal for Utah.L
Grijalva, Bishop and Murkowski agreed in interviews yesterday that reviving the lands package during the remaining lame-duck session was highly unlikely, especially given the uncertainty over a continuing resolution Congress and President Trump can agree on. Murkowski said she spoke with Bishop on Wednesday night after the Senate floor debate on the lands package and that the two discussed whether there were any options to move the bill through the House. “But we had kind of run that trap, and it was not in the cards last night,” she told E&E News in an interview yesterday in her office. “Now today, it’s a little different landscape.” While Trump’s decision to not accept the continuing resolution “has kind of thrown everything out of the truck,” she said overcoming Lee’s objections would still require floor time to work through procedural votes that wouldn’t be welcomed by her Senate colleagues.”We’re going to need consent,” she said.
The Alaska Republican instead is focused on January, when Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has promised to put the lands package directly on the floor and file cloture to “basically run that clock out” on Lee’s hold. She envisions the package as more or less the same as what was agreed to by her, Cantwell, Bishop and Grijalva, although some “small, little pieces” could change if they manage to pass by unanimous consent as the Senate wraps up the session. “But the nuts and bolts of it will be this package,” she said. “And we’ve all agreed no shenanigans, it’s not like we’re going to put judges on it or the Dems are going to put something else on it.”
However, Murkowski acknowledged that it’s Grijalva’s prerogative as the incoming Natural Resources chairman to make changes, “and I certainly don’t begrudge him that.” “It may be that they do their own version and we kind of pingpong back and forth, but what we have right now is a commitment to take this up,” said the Alaska Republican. “It’s not what I had hoped for,” she said, “but it allows us to start the new year with a real shot at finishing up some of these land matters that have been outstanding for so long.”
