02.12.18

As Trump Proposes to Destroy Land and Water Conservation Fund & Privatize Infrastructure, Grijalva Highlights 219 LWCF Cosponsors

Washington, D.C. – Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today highlighted his bill permanently reauthorizing the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which funds public land acquisitions and conservation efforts across the country, and underscored the bill’s 219 House cosponsors as a rebuke to President Trump’s budget proposal slashing LWCF land acquisition by approximately 90 percent from fiscal year 2017 levels.

Grijalva’s bill, H.R. 502, would pass the House today if given a vote. Rather than acknowledging the bill’s undeniable popularity on and off Capitol Hill, Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) has refused to grant the bill a hearing while he continues to promise his own yet-to-be-released rewrite of the bipartisan program. Trump’s budget plan effectively destroys LWCF by starving it of funding.

Grijalva also pointed to the Trump budget’s relaxing of standards to give away public lands and its attempted privatization of the Western Area Power Administration, Bonneville Power Administration, Southwestern Power Administration, Tennessee Valley Authority, D.C.-area airports and other public infrastructure as evidence that the administration cares more about its rich, well-connected corporate friends than the American people.

“It’s like the president has been watching too many President’s Day sale ads and now he thinks everything must go,” Grijalva said today. “We can only hope it’s because he thinks he and his allies in Congress may be losing their lease.”

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