Senate Votes to Permanently Support Land and Water Conservation Fund

National parks have consistently enjoyed strong support from the American public ever since the first park, Yellowstone, was designated in 1872. Today, roughly 640 million acres are owned by the federal government, with the majority managed by the Fish and Wildlife Service, National Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land Management (BLM), and the Forest Service (USFS). Upwards of 500 million people visit federal lands each year, and many endangered species rely on federal lands for protection. This huge amount of land area, combined with the popularity of the sites, has caused maintenance and conservation project backlog to rise rapidly over the past decade. The national park maintenance backlog alone is over $19 billion, despite bipartisan interest in reducing it during both the Obama and Trump administrations. But this year, the issue may be one step closer to being resolved—legislators have made a concerted effort to address the financial needs of public lands with a bill that would permanently fund federal land acquisition and maintenance.

The Great American Outdoors Act (GAO Act, S.3422), introduced by Senators Corey Gardner (R-Co.) and Joe Manchin (D-W.V.), combines the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act (S.1081/H.R.3195) with the Restore Our Parks Act (S.500). The GAO Act has wide bipartisan support, and passed the Senate in a 73-25 vote June 17, 2020 with the Taxpayer First Act of 2019 (H.R.1957) as a legislative vehicle. It will likely pass into law even as other legislation remains stalled in partisan gridlock.

The GAO Act authorizes $900 million in annual expenditures from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which funds federal land acquisition, state and local grant programs to protect habitat for threatened and endangered species, and other measures to maintain federally-owned land. The LWCF, which was established in 1964, is financed through revenues on offshore oil and gas projects on federal waters. While it has collected over $22 billion in fees from fossil fuel extraction since its creation, these funds have often been raided by Congress for other unrelated uses. Permanent authorization would end this practice, assuring these fees are spent on their intended purpose. According to the LWCF Coalition, this funding could be used to help resolve the nearly $30 billion backlog in federal conservation needs across all public lands.

The Act also establishes the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund, which will be financed by revenues from energy development on federal lands and waters, up to $1.9 billion per year from 2020-2025. Funds will be directed toward deferred maintenance projects in the NPS, the National Wildlife Refuge System and the USFS, on public lands administered by the BLM, and on schools managed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The bill also requires that measures to improve accessibility to individuals with disabilities be included in maintenance, and that a study by the Government Accountability Office be submitted to Congress within five years of the legislation’s enactment.

The House bill to permanently fund the LWCF has widespread bipartisan support, and President Trump expressed his support of the legislation in March. The bill has also received support from conservation groups, expressed via a letter with over 800 signatures. The groups commended the bill as a way to make needed repairs on National Parks and public lands, and described the LWCF as the “nation’s most important conservation program.” Other supporters have touted the bill as a way to support the outdoor recreation industry, which generates 5.2 million jobs and $778 billion in annual consumer spending, according to the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable. According to Senator Gardner, the bill will create over 100,000 jobs in a period of high unemployment.

However, the bill has received criticism from some agricultural groups and lawmakers from both parties. In a letter signed by 48 livestock and natural resources groups, opponents raised concerns about the ability of federal agencies to use $360 million per year to acquire new federal lands without Congressional oversight. The groups predicted that the GAO Act, instead of resolving the backlog of federal lands maintenance, would add to the amount of poorly-managed land under federal control. The $360 million referenced in the letter is not required to be used for land acquisition, but instead is the maximum amount of funds from the LWCF that can be used to acquire new federal land each year.

Other groups and lawmakers, such as House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), have questioned the longevity of the LWCF’s usefulness. Since the fund is financed by revenues from oil and gas extraction, Grijalva cautioned against using replenishing the fund as justification for continued extraction. However, he did say that it is important to allocate more money to the fund in order to “maximize its use” while transitioning away from the kinds of fuels that support the fund.

Despite these criticisms, the bill remains overwhelmingly popular, with Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) identifying funding the LWCF as a priority as early as March 2020. Speaking on the Senate floor on June 8, he praised national parks and federal lands for generating over $200 billion annually and supporting over 1 million jobs.

“I’m proud of the stand they’ve taken in support of our nation’s natural wonders and the millions of American livelihoods that depend on them,” McConnell said, praising Senator Gardner and Senator Steve Daines (R-Mont.) specifically.

For more coverage of the 116th Congress’s other wildlife and land preservation priorities, see this EESI round-up.

Author: Abby Neal