President Donald Trump called for Congress to “send me a bill that fully and permanently funds the LWCF and restores our national parks,” and Congress listened.
The Great American Outdoors Act, S. 3422, was introduced into the Senate March 9 by a coalition of bipartisan senators. A total of 57 senators cosponsored the bill.
The legislation provides permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and addresses the nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog in national parks and land management agencies. The agencies include the U.S. Forest Service (USFS), U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and Bureau of Indian Education (BIE).
“The LWCF supports projects in Colorado and all across our country at no cost to the taxpayer, and fighting every year to figure out how much money the program will receive doesn’t provide the long-term planning certainty that our outdoor and conservation community deserves,” said bill cosponsor Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO). “Last year we were successful in permanently reauthorizing the LWCF, the crown jewel of conservation programs, and I have been fighting ever since to make funding permanent.”
The bill builds upon previously introduced legislation, the Land Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act (S. 1081), which would permanently fund LWCF, and the Restore Our Parks Act (S. 500), which would provide mandatory funding for National Park Service (NPS) deferred maintenance.
The bill would require $900 million in funding for LWCF, which would be funded by energy revenue from federal lands. For the first year, 70 percent of funds would be allocated to the National Park Service, 15 percent of funds to the USFS, and 5 percent each to the USFWS, BLM, and BIE.
Industry reactions
Public Lands Council (PLC) Executive Director and National Cattlemen’s Beef Association (NCBA) Executive Director of Natural Resources Kaitlynn Glover released a statement in opposition of the bill.
“NCBA and PLC support efforts to create a strong future for our country’s public lands. State-side LWCF funding has been critical to many rural communities that depend on agriculture, but giving a blank check to the federal government lacks foresight,” she said.
“If the Great American Outdoors Act becomes law, Congress will be complicit in the tens of billions of dollars in future deferred maintenance caused by these acquisitions. Issues addressed by this bill are real, but the American people know that throwing money at a problem is not the way to make it go away.
PLC said the act permanently removes congressional oversight in how the federal government acquires land using the LWCF, while giving $9.5 billion to several federal agencies that have “demonstrated their inability to prevent billion-dollar deferred maintenance backlogs.”
Additionally, the agency said the legislation gives “future administrations license to buy as much land as they can find each year without any consideration to impacts on communities or natural resource management.” — Anna Miller, WLJ editor
