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This week, a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives introduced legislation to guarantee $900 million in annual mandatory funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) – a move that drew praise from NMMA and the outdoor recreation community. The bill – officially called the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act (H.R. 3195) – was introduced by freshman Rep. Jeff Van Drew (D-NJ) and is companion legislation to an effort in the Senate led by Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Joe Manchin (D-WV).

The LWCF was established in 1965 by Congress as a program to protect and invest in natural areas, water resources and cultural heritage, and to provide recreation opportunities in our nation’s public lands and waters. It is the most critical federal conservation program that also responsibly increases access to recreational fishing and boating on the nation’s public waters.

The program uses fees from offshore oil and gas drilling to pay for parks and other outdoor recreation projects across the country. Every year, $900 million in royalties paid by energy companies drilling for oil and gas are put into this fund, yet nearly every year, Congress diverts much of this funding to uses other than conserving the nation’s lands and waters.

As a result, there is a substantial backlog of federal conservation needs estimated at more than $30 billion — including places vulnerable to development such as the Florida Everglades, Grand Teton National Park in Wyoming, and other cherished places around the country. State governments also report requests of $27 billion in LWCF funds for eligible local parks and recreation projects.

This past March, Congress permanently reauthorized the program as part of a bipartisan public lands bill (S.47), but its funding for the coming year has not been finalized. The U.S. House Appropriations Committee recently voted to fund the program at $524 million in FY20, an increase of $85 million from last year and $491 million more than was requested in the administration’s budget proposal. It will be up to the Senate and the White House to decide whether to accept that amount.

U.S. House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, and strong supporter of H.R. 3195 and permanent LWCF funding, expects that his committee will consider the LWCF funding legislation during a markup before the July 4th Congressional recess.

For more information, please contact NMMA senior vice president of government and legal affairs, Nicole Vasilaros at [email protected] or NMMA director of federal government relations, Callie Hoyt at [email protected].