LWCF Re-Authorization.. The backgroud

The House last night overwhelmingly passed a massive, bipartisan public lands package, securing well over the two-thirds’ support needed to pass the legislation under suspension.

The measure, which the Senate passed 92-8 earlier this month, would permanently renew the Land and Water Conservation Fund, increase public lands access for sportsmen and women, and designate more than 1.3 million acres of new wilderness. The House vote was 363-62.

The legislation would create four new national monuments, add more than 367 miles of rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, and increase the size of national parks by more than 42,000 acres E&E Daily, Feb. 13).

President Trump is expected to sign S. 47, the “Natural Resources Management Act,” into law.

After the House vote, Democratic leaders issued statements noting the package had been renamed the “John D. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act,” after the late Michigan Democrat who helped shepherd major environ Imental legislation into law and pushed for permanent reauthorization of LWCF decades ago. Dingell died earlier this month.

“Being here with this bipartisan group of people, working to preserve our land, he’s looking up above and saying, ‘Well done, all of you,'” Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) said of her husband.

Less than perfect, but good enough

S. 47 took years to craft.

“If people are looking for perfection, it’s not there, but if they are looking for a significant movement on public lands, then it’s this package,” House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) said earlier this week.

Grijalva was one of the four main negotiators on the legislation.

Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, the top Republican on Natural Resources, shared similar sentiments during his floor remarks yesterday.

“Is this bill perfect? No. It’s too big to be perfect. Is the process creating this perfect? Hell no. But I am perfectly satisfied and willing to vote for this because without this, there will be no progress,” said the former chairman of the panel. “The status quo will be maintained, and that is bad.”

Asked after the vote whether he was happy, Bishop deadpanned: “For me.”

The Utah Republican pushed hard for reforms to LWCF that eventually made it into S. 47. The changes would better balance the federal- and state-side allocations, which Bishop said has too heavily favored Uncle Sam over the years.

The changes would allocate 40 percent of the fund’s money to its state-side program, 40 percent to the federal government and 20 percent for other necessary activities that could include deferred maintenance needs.

Passage of the measure, which includes more than 100 bills from Republicans and Democrats that affect lands and waters across the country, is a big legislative achievement for Grijalva, Bishop, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), and former ENR ranking member Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.).

“Both chambers are now on record in strong support of this package of lands, water management, sportsmen, and conservation measures,” Murkowski said in a statement.

Grijalva in particular was under pressure to make changes to the package when it arrived from the Senate midmonth, he and other members acknowledged. Some of those changes “would have just torpedoed this whole thing,” the Arizona Democrat said yesterday, though he didn’t elaborate on what those demands involved.

The four lawmakers fought to hew to the bicameral, bipartisan agreement they made on the package late last year.

In December, Murkowski tried to bring S. 47 to the floor in an expedited move but failed after an objection from Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah).

Lee complained in part last year he hadn’t had a chance to see what was in the nearly 700-page package.

Bishop yesterday noted at least 63 bills in the package were passed by the House during the last 18 months that had been “languishing” in the Senate.

“If someone says they don’t have time to look at the stuff in there, there have been months to look at this stuff as it’s been sitting over in the Senate,” Bishop said.

‘Public lands revolution’

Groups such as the League of Conservation Voters and the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks said they were “thrilled” with the package’s congressional passage.

“This is the most sweeping public lands protection bill in a decade and a testament to the nation’s commitment to conservation,” said Jamie Williams, president of the Wilderness Society. “Passage of this bill provides a hopeful sign that the new Congress can and will step up to meet our nation’s pressing environmental challenges.”

It wasn’t just the traditional green groups that praised Congress for getting the measure over the finish line. Organizations such as the Outdoor Industry Association, the National Marine Manufacturers Association and Backcountry Hunters & Anglers all supported the legislation.

“The masses are awakening, and the public lands revolution is growing,” BHA President and CEO Land Tawney said after the House vote.

Patricia Rojas-Ungar, vice president of government affairs for OIA, said the group’s outdoor recreation economy report from last year “was a critical resource for quantifying the economic impact” of the industry — and helped boost bipartisan support.

“When lawmakers on both sides of the aisle learned that the outdoors generate $887 billion in consumer spending and support 7.6 million jobs, there was little question about the value of our public lands,” she said.

‘It ain’t going away’

While Bishop traditionally “recoiled” at permanent reauthorization of LWCF, he said it was inevitable given the program’s popularity.

“It’s been here since the ’60s, it functions whether it’s authorized or not. It ain’t going away,” he said.

He maintained that as long as he could get reforms to the program codified, he’d support permanent renewal.

But last night after the vote, the Utah Republican said he would oppose any effort to secure mandatory funding for LWCF — something still on the wish list for many of the program’s supporters on and off Capitol Hill.

“That’s something I would object to,” Bishop said, adding he didn’t think that would “ever fly in the Senate.”

Earlier this month, Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), the ENR Committee’s ranking member, said after the Senate vote on the lands package that securing mandatory funding for LWCF is “our next big lift” and that supporters need “to make sure that gets done.”

At the time, Murkowski acknowledged the “divide” in the Senate on mandatory funding for LWCF.

“I don’t think that issue is done and over,” she said in response to a question at the post-vote press conference, adding, “I think that may be something you see coming out of the House” in the future.

The authorized funding level for LWCF is $900 million, but it’s hardly ever been funded at that level; its annual appropriations in recent years have typically been about half that.