WSI Editorial Board Critical of Permanent Re-authorization of LWCF
A Fund That Will Never Run Dry
Some Republicans want to put another federal program on autopilot.
July 9, 2019 7:35 pm ET
Democrats on the House Natural Resources Committee voted in June to mandate permanents pending of $900 million a year for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The LWCF was created in 1964 to “assist in preserving, developing and assuring accessibility to . . . outdoor recreation resources.” It is funded mainly by federal oil and gas drilling royalties.
Over the years it has become a piggy bank for government to buy more private property, especially in the American West. Some of the purchase priorities are recommended by state and local governments or conservation groups, while the feds focus on buying more of the 2.6 million acres of privately owned land that remain within national park boundaries. This serves the liberal goal of locking up more acreage for political control, and the Democratic House will likely pass it this summer.
More perplexing is support from Republican Senators such as Cory Gardner (Colorado) and Steve Daines (Montana). Of the $18.9 billion appropriated to the fund over the years, $11.4 billion has gone to buying private land. Nearly five in 10 acres in the Western U.S. are already federally owned, including 36% of Colorado and almost 30% of Montana. These Senators think the government needs more?
The feds do a miserable job managing the 640 million acres they already own. The National Park Service has a maintenance backlog of $12 billion. The Forest Service spent more than $2 billion last year fighting blazes that destroyed 8.7 million acres—much of it poorly managed federal forestland.
In March President Trump signed legislation that permanently reauthorized the LWCF, which means Congress will no longer be taking a fresh look at priorities and value on an occasional basis. Making its funding permanent would compound that legislative abdication. Congress is supposed to make annual judgments about what the fund needs, and its average size over the past 15 years is about $360 million a year. Providing bureaucrats a guaranteed $900 million annually is a stipend far beyond need.
Requiring annual appropriations would let Congress redirect more money to upkeep and to improving access to existing lands. Senate Republicans should insist that the LWCF money be devoted to maintenance until the government better manages its current holdings.
Some Republicans like that the fund improves local and state recreation areas. Others claim the federal purchase of private land helps agencies maintain existing parks and forests. Fair enough, but then approve it each year instead of putting more federal spending on automatic. Congress’s job is to review the programs it creates, not outsource judgments to bureaucrats working with special interests.
