Congressional support for and opposition to: Full and Dedicated funding for LWCF
U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, Brian Fitzpatrick, and Andy Kim, along with U.S. Sens. Cory Booker, Bob Casey, and Bob Menendez, are supporting an effort to permanently fund the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million a year. Sen. Pat Toomey is opposed, taking issue with the language creating perpetual funding.
Several members of the congressional delegation serving Bucks and Burlington counties are throwing their support behind a bill that would dramatically and permanently increase funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), one of the nation’s primary public recreation programs.
The fund has had a rocky year. First started in 1964, the LWCF collects royalties from offshore oil and gas drilling and uses them to pay for conservation and recreation projects across the country. The fund has helped pay for everything from public land preservation at national parks, to the development of state parks such as Tyler and Nockamixon in Pennsylvania and Wharton State Forest in New Jersey, down to local projects such as swimming pool construction.
Historically, Congress has reauthorized the program at regular intervals, but the LWCF lapsed when lawmakers failed to do so last year. The fund remained in limbo until Congress passed, and President Donald Trump signed, the John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act in March. That bill went a step further than prior iterations by permanently reauthorizing the fund and avoiding any future lapses.
The new bill would bolster the program further. By law, Congress can appropriate up to $900 million a year from the program, but advocates say it typically only authorizes about half that amount. Enter the LWCF Permanent Funding Act, which would permanently authorize the full amount.
The bill was introduced in the House last week by New Jersey Rep. Jeff Van Drew, D-1, of Dennis, and in the Senate in April by U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia. And the bill has some early bipartisan support in both chambers, including Pennsylvania Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-1, of Middletown.
“I fought for reauthorization of this fund which affects 98 percent of counties in the United States and encompasses 1 in 15 American jobs,” Fitzpatrick said in a prepared statement. “Now I’m fighting to fully fund the LWCF so we can address conservation and recreational access needs across the country.”
A week after its introduction in the House, the bill has 60 cosponsors, although Fitzpatrick is one of just three Republicans to sign on thus far. The Senate bill has received more support since its introduction in April, with 41 cosponsors, six of whom are Republican.
From the regional delegation, New Jersey Sens. Cory Booker, D-Newark, and Bob Menendez, D-Paramus, as well as Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey, D-Scranton, are listed online as cosponsors. Spokespeople for U.S. Reps. Madeleine Dean, D-4, of Abington, and Andy Kim, D-3, of Bordentown Township, said they are also co-sponsoring the bill.
Environmental groups including the LWCF Coalition, League of Conservation Voters, and the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership have all quickly voiced their support for the bill. “Securing permanent authorization for LWCF was a significant milestone, but it means very little without predictable, robust funding to unlock inaccessible public lands and create new outdoor recreation opportunities all across the country,” Whit Fosburgh, president of the Roosevelt partnership, said in a prepared statement.
But some in Congress have opposed the efforts, primarily citing concerns over fiscal responsibility and the kinds of projects receiving funding.
When the LWCF lapsed last year, U.S. Rep Bob Bishop, R-Utah, played a role as the then-chair of the House Natural Resources committee. His office did not respond to requests for comment, but a spokesperson for the committee said at the time he was concerned over where funds were flowing.
“Chairman Bishop is working on a bipartisan basis to modernize the law to ensure that states receive a more equitable share of LWCF monies and more funding is prioritized for public recreational access, as originally intended under the law,” then-spokeswoman Rebekah Hoshiko said.
When the LWCF was ultimately reauthorized in March, U.S. Sen Pat Toomey, R-Allentown, was one of just eight senators who voted against the bill. But spokesman Steve Kelly said the LWCF “certainly wasn’t the basis” for the “no” vote. He pointed out the LWCF was rolled in a much larger public lands bill, which the Associated Pressreported included the creation of five new national monuments, the expansion of several national parks, and the addition of 1.3 million acres of new federal wilderness.
“The federal government has a $17.5 billion maintenance backlog on the lands it already owns,” Toomey said in a statement. “This bill permanently reauthorize(d) the federal government’s land acquisition authority while ignoring the need to address this backlog and other problems.”
Asked about Toomey’s position on the new bill to max out LWCF appropriations, Kelly reiterated Toomey does not oppose the fund, but does take issue with what the bill would do.
″(Toomey) generally does not support permanently authorizing spending programs,” Kelly wrote in an email. “Congress has a constitutional responsibility to debate and pass annual spending bills. Permanent authorizations let Congress and the president off the hook in meeting this responsibility — which is wrong.”
