Congress Passes Public Lands Package Renewing LWCF

Congress has passed a bipartisan public lands package which would permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The President is expected to sign the legislation. The Natural Resources Management Act, or S. 47, passed in Senate by a vote of 92-8 on February 12, after which the House of Representatives voted 363-62 to pass the measure on February 26. LWCF was established in 1964 to use revenues from offshore oil and gas to support the conservation of land and water resources. Authorization for LWCF expired on September 30, 2018 but Congress had appropriated $487.6 million ($425 million in discretionary funds and $62.6 million in mandatory funds) for the program in fiscal year (FY) 2018. Congress has allocated $435 million in discretionary funds towards LWCF for FY 2019. The package includes more than 100 land and water bills that designate more than 1.3 million acres of new wilderness in California, New Mexico and Utah; create four new national monuments; add more than 367 miles of rivers to the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System; add more than 42,000 acres to national parks; and provide improvements to the national volcano monitoring and early warning system. The measure also includes expansions for hunting, fishing, and recreation on federal lands. Republican and Democratic lawmakers highlighted the contributions of outdoor recreation and public lands to the national economy. The Outdoor Industry Association has estimated that the outdoor rec...
Source: Public Policy Reports - Category: Biology Authors: Source Type: news