The latest summary of LWCF reauthorization activities in Congress..
While House Republicans and Democrats last week were vigorously debating the future of the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the Senate Energy Committee did something about it. For the second time this year the Senate panel November 19 approved legislation that would permanently reauthorize LWCF. At the same time the committee would revise the program formula to give greater precedence to state grants.
Senate Energy Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) inserted the provision in a popular bill (S 556) that would benefit hunters and fishermen, particularly on the public lands. Ranking committee Democrat Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.) endorsed the measure. Sportsmen lauded the committee, both for the LWCF provision and the hunting and fishing provisions. “It is just as important to uphold the public’s ability to access key lands and waters as it is to conserve them, so we thank Committee Chair Murkowski and Ranking Member Cantwell for including compromise language for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, one of our nation’s most popular and successful conservation programs, in the bill,” says Land Tawney, president and CEO of Backcountry Hunters & Anglers.
The Senate committee previously approved a similar LWCF provision on July 30 in a comprehensive energy bill (S 2012). Derrick Crandall, a veteran natural resources lobbyist, suggested that S 556 doesn’t stand a very good chance of enactment by itself, but that in a package of other park and recreation bills could make it over the finish line in this Congress. “I don’t think there is floor time available and a conference committee capability (for single bills),” he said. Referring to other major outdoor legislation in the works for the Park Service Centennial and federal recreation fees he said, “I don’t know if the senior guys will sit down and work out five, six or seven individual bills. One big bill would be easier to give and take in conference.”
Crandall, president of the American Recreation Coalition and counselor to the National Park Hospitality Association, said, “In the last 20 years I have never seen so much potential for such a significant piece of legislation. The elements are all there. I think there will be something big coming out of the 114th Congress.” The 114th Congress runs through 2016. Meanwhile, the House Natural Resources Committee November 18 held a tempestuous hearing on a discussion draft bill from committee chairman Rob Bishop (R-Alaska) that would substantially rewrite LWCF. The Bishop draft (he emphasized the word “discussion” at the hearing) would slash funding for the federal side of LWCF but give great support to the state side. States traditionally receives a small fraction of the total LWCF pie; the draft Bishop bill would guarantee them 45 percent. In addition Bishop would allocate five percent of LWCF to an urban recreation fund, sort of a follow-on to an Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery program. He would allocate just 3.5 percent to federal land acquisition. “The bottom line is what we have to do is make sure the state side program – the program people like – has to be emphasized,” Bishop said. “The (federal) program which interest groups are using to fund themselves without any accountability, that has to be controlled.”
Rep. Cynthia Lummis (R-Wyo.) suggested that federal land acquisition had run up an $18 billion federal land management maintenance backlog. “In the mid-1970s federal land agencies faced a different backlog. The backlog in federal land agency maintenance was estimated by the Ford Administration at $2.9 billion. Now because of that federal expansion the federal land agencies are facing a deferred maintenance in operations backlog of $18 billion.” Ranking committee Democrat Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) took issue with the idea that federal land acquisitions amount to a slush fund. He said they are fully vetted, both by the administration and appropriators. “All LWCF expenditures are approved by Congress, through the appropriations process,” he said. “The proposed land acquisitions are developed over many years, through a public planning process. This is more transparent than most federal spending and is the opposite of a slush fund.”
The Obama administration rejected Bishop’s discussion draft bill out-of-hand. Said Kristen J. Sarri, deputy assistant secretary of Interior for Policy, “The draft bill proposes overly prescriptive, top-down, and arbitrary limits on federal land acquisition, which would undermine efforts to create, protect and preserve public access to some of our nation’s most important outdoor spaces.” Noting a provision of the bill that would set aside 20 percent of offshore oil and gas revenues to benefit industry, she added, “The draft bill would also seek to redirect money to promote offshore oil and gas exploration, representing a departure from a foundational principle of the Act – to use a small portion of offshore oil and gas revenue to invest in outdoor recreation and conservation for the benefit of the American public. We would oppose any effort to alter the LWCF in these fundamental ways.”
Over the 50 years of LWCF national conservation groups and state and local park and rec officials have struck an uneasy alliance to campaign together for substantial appropriations. But at the November 18 hearing Tom Wolfe, a public affairs consultant with broad experience advocating for state grants, sounded a different tone. “LWCF stateside funding has been hijacked by land conservation advocates at the expense of outdoor recreation,” he said. “Stateside supporters believe strongly in conservation goals – but not at the expense of what was once a comprehensive, meaningful outdoor recreation program.”
The National Association of State Park Directors took a milder tone, praising the benefits of a beefed up stateside program. Testifying for the association, Bill Bryan, director of State Parks in Missouri, said, “This increased share means that potentially over $300 million more – which would be matched locally – would be spent around the nation on state and local projects to serve rural and urban constituents alike, support economic development, and help Americans live happier, healthier lives.” After a 50-year run the LWCF Act expired on September 30, although Congress can still appropriate money for it in annual spending bills, such as the fiscal 2016 Interior approps bills.
A half-dozen bills have been introduced in the House and Senate to reauthorize the program, most of them straight-up permanent extensions. In the Senate they include S 338 from Sen. Richard Burr (R-N.C.), S 890 from Cantwell, S 1925 from Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) and S 2165 from Cantwell. In addition on November 19 Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) introduced a bill (S 2318) to extend LWCF for 10 years. He would rejigger the formula by directing appropriators to put up 60 percent for states and 40 percent for federal land buys.
The House has not been as active as the Senate. One bill to reauthorize LWCF (HR 1814) has been introduced, albeit with more than 140 cosponsors from both parties, led by Grijalva. The Bishop bill: The draft would extend LWCF for seven years with an authorization of $900 million per year, leaving it up to appropriators to decide how much of the $900 million to set aside each year for LWCF. But the bill would require appropriators to follow these nine percentage allocations therein:
* 45 percent – stateside of LWCF
* 5 percent – urban fund
* 3.5 percent – federal land acquisition
* 3.5 percent – deferred federal land maintenance
* 3.5 percent – Forest Legacy (Forest Service)
* 3.5 percent – Endangered Species Act fund
* 1 percent – battlefield acquisition
* 20 percent – offshore energy development
* 15 percent – payments-in-lieu of taxes
Senate LWCF bill: The sportsmen’s bill would allot 40 percent of the total LWCF appropriation per year for federal land acquisition and at least 1.5 percent per year (or more than $10 million) for access to federal land for recreational purposes. It would also require expenditure of at least 40 percent of annual LWCF appropriations for a combination of state LWCF grants, Forest Legacy grants, endangered species grants and an American Battlefield Protection Program. Senate sportsmen’s provisions: The half-dozen hunting and fishing provisions include direction to federal land managers to keep public lands open to sportsmen unless officially closed, reduce restrictions on commercial filming in national parks and improve access to “high priority” federal lands where hunting, fishing and outdoor recreation are permitted.
