11.17.15

Ahead of LWCF Rewrite Hearing, Analysis Shows Millions of Dollars in Federal Conservation Benefits in Committee Members’ Districts

Washington, D.C. – Ahead of tomorrow’s Natural Resources Committee hearing on Chairman Rob Bishop’s (R-Utah) rewrite of the Land and Water Conservation Fund – which House Republicans allowed to expire on Sept. 30 for the first time in its 50-year history – a new analysis shows that many of the districts represented by Committee Democrats and Republicans enjoy millions of dollars in LWCF conservation benefits. The future of those benefits, and the possibility of extending them to new conservation projects, is unclear if Bishop’s bill becomes law.

The analysis, conducted by House Natural Resources Committee Democrats using federal and conservation group data, shows that six Committee Republicans have more than $8 million each in federal (as opposed to stateside) LWCF conservation funding in their respective districts. The top Republican recipients include Reps. Ryan Zinke (Mont.), Don Young (Alaska), Doug LaMalfa (Calif.), Paul Cook (Calif.), Jeff Denham (Calif.) and John Fleming (La.).

Top Democratic recipients of LWCF federal conservation funds include Reps. Jared Huffman, Raul Ruiz and Lois Capps, all of California. You can see the full analysis at http://1.usa.gov/1MA9GqO.

As Greenwire reported late last week, Bishop’s bill “would allow no more than 3.5 percent of LWCF funds go to federal land acquisitions. Currently, roughly half of LWCF money goes to federal land purchases.” It is unclear whether House Republicans, especially those who enjoy high levels of federal conservation funding, will ultimately support Bishop’s bill.

Tomorrow’s hearing is expected to focus on Bishop’s unsubstantiated insistence that the LWCF has become a “slush fund” for federal land acquisition – an argument that ignores the program’s history and purpose and the broad public input it has always involved. Federal LWCF money is used by land management agencies to purchase land from willing sellers to protect and enlarge conservation areas such as national parks, national monuments, national wildlife refuges and migratory bird refuges, such as the one Chairman Bishop enlarged in his own district by special request in 2009. All such expenditures are approved by Congress through the appropriations process.

Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva will argue at tomorrow’s hearing that the LWCF should be cleanly and permanently reauthorized. His no-strings reauthorization bill, H.R. 1814 – which has 195 Democratic and Republican cosponsors – has still not been given a hearing or vote.

“Congressman Bishop is working overtime to end the Land & Water Conservation Fund as we know it,” said Juan Palma, Chief Conservation Officer for Hispanics Enjoying Camping, Hunting, and the Outdoors and former Utah BLM State Director. “Instead of allowing a hearing on H.R. 1814 – a bill that would permanently authorize LWCF and has 195 bipartisan co-sponsors – he has introduced his own proposal that favors special interests, and is granting that a hearing instead. Mr. Bishop’s proposal is an attempt to dismantle a simple, tried-and-true program established to protect parks, trails, and wildlife. LWCF has worked for 50 years as it is. The focus of any hearing should be moving H.R. 1814 across the finish line.”

“This hearing is a monumental waste of time,” said LCV Land Conservation Fellow Andy French. “Chairman Rob Bishop continues to play games by threatening to gut America’s most successful parks program just to get more unnecessary subsidies for big polluters. Congress needs to step up to the plate to permanently reauthorize and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund so that we can protect special places for generations to come.”

You can learn more about the LWCF and efforts to renew it at http://1.usa.gov/1MkRmDY.

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