Senator encourages legislative action on LWCF
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee should first move legislation to provide mandatory funding for a popular conservation program, and then advance another bipartisan bill to help reduce the multibillion-dollar maintenance backlog in national parks, a top Republican said yesterday. “The better way to have success with those bills is to do again what we did before [and] what the House did, which is to move them together but separately,” Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) said during a committee hearing that featured Katharine MacGregor, the administration’s Interior deputy secretary nominee (see related story).
Alexander, a sponsor of the “Restore Our Parks Act,” S. 500, and a co-sponsor of legislation to permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, said he didn’t want the Senate to “miss this opportunity” to propel both bills to the floor for consideration. The administration continues to support the parks maintenance backlog bill, which now has 43 Senate co-sponsors, MacGregor said. “Do it first to make sure it gets out of committee,” Alexander said, adding that he believes it has enough votes to make it through the panel.
The LWCF bill, sponsored by West Virginia Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, ranking member of the full committee, is not supported by the administration but does enjoy bipartisan support in the Senate. Energy and Natural Resources Chairwoman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) told reporters after the hearing that considering the two bills in the same markup is “one possibility” as discussions continue. She praised Alexander for “doing a great job” working with the administration and senators on how to advance the “Restore Our Parks Act.” Sens. Rob Portman (R-Ohio) and Angus King (I-Maine) are shepherding the parks legislation in the upper chamber along with Alexander. The Energy and Natural Resources Committee in 2018 reported out the parks maintenance backlog bill in December; two months earlier, it advanced legislation providing mandatory funding for LWCF. Both bills were reintroduced in the 116th Congress, but neither has been scheduled for a markup.
House action
The House Natural Resources Committee this summer reported out both bills in separate markups. Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) has said he wants the bills to move “in tandem” and that they are “tied at the hip.” The House’s “Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act,” H.R. 1225, would establish a five-year, $6.5 billion restoration fund for the Interior Department to address the growing deferred maintenance backlog in national parks and on other public lands. It’s similar to the Senate bill but would go further to address the maintenance backlog on public lands managed by other Interior agencies, not just the National Park Service. The money would come from up to 50% of otherwise unallocated revenue from all energy production on federal lands and waters. The legislation, sponsored by Natural Resources’ top Republican, Utah Rep. Rob Bishop, has 329 co-sponsors. Bishop said last week he was seeking a meeting with House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) to talk about scheduling the legislation for a floor vote.
