Administration Budget targets LWCF, State Grants and GOMESA
The Trump administration would scale back significantly on new federal land acquisitions and revenue-sharing partnerships with states, while seeking new oil and drilling opportunities in the Arctic, under its fiscal 2018 Interior budget proposal unveiled today ( 5-23-17 ).
The White House has requested $11.7 billion for Interior in fiscal 2018. That’s slightly more than the $11.6 billion budget proposal for the department that the administration outlined in its preliminary “skinny budget” in March, but an 11 percent decrease from current funding.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said during a press briefing today that the budget request “speaks to the overall mission of Interior and funds our highest priorities.” He said it “wasn’t an easy job” putting it together, but he wanted to make sure the budget reflected his priority of “shoring up our infrastructure and shoring up our front line” — meaning the department’s federal managers and rangers.
Many of the cuts would affect the acquisition and maintenance of public lands. The budget blueprint would reduce land acquisition spending by $129 million, calling it a “lower priority” than using money to maintain existing parks, refuges and public lands.
“DOI already owns roughly 500 million acres of federal land,” the Trump budget document said. “At a time when DOI has billions of dollars in deferred maintenance, it needs to focus scarce resources and better manage what it owns before acquiring additional lands.”
GOMESA
The budget would repeal payments to Gulf Coast states under the 2006 Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA), slashing it by $272 million in fiscal 2018 and assuming a cost savings of $3.6 billion over the next decade. The law created revenue-sharing between the federal government and four oil-and-gas-producing states: Alabama, Louisiana, Mississippi and Texas. The states use those funds for coastal restoration and hurricane protection. And it would allow funding for the State Assistance Program of LWCF in the amount of a projected 94 million dollars.
Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) yesterday said he would oppose any effort to end the GOMESA revenue-sharing program. “I think the White House just doesn’t have all the facts, nor does OMB,” Kennedy said. “We plan on sharing our thoughts with them. I think once we explain things to them, they’ll agree with us.”
Impacts on the State Assistance Program of LWCF
The Administration Budget eliminates funding from the LWCF discretionary fund and substitutes a projection of 94 million in FY 18 from the GOMESA program. However, current projections put the amount available for the State Assistance Program from GOMESA revenues at from 50 to 60 million dollars. It should be noted that the ” discretionary ” funding for the State Assistance Program in the FY 18 Budget proposal was eliminated and that GOMESA was to be an ” add on ” to the discretionary funding, which was 110 million in FY 17. It also eliminated the requirement for, and mention of, the urban program ORLP in the new budget.
