The Land and Water Conservation Fund, America's most important conservation and recreation program, expired at the end of September. Congress failed to reauthorize the program that has supported more than 42,000 parks and projects across the nationwide for the past 54 years. To my own surprise, this program is not funded by tax payer money but actually by oil and gas offshore drilling royalties. The Land and Water Conservation Fund Coalition, an umbrella group of over a thousand public land stakeholders, is tracking money lost since the program’s expiration. Within 24 hours, the fund was down more than $1.5 million.
On Oct. 2, Washington Senator Maria Cantwell sponsored a bill within the energy and natural resources committee that would permanently reauthorize the fund and mandate it receive the full $900 million its allowed. Legislators will have just a few weeks between the November elections and the holiday recess to approve the bill. While there’s generally broad and bipartisan support for the fund, this Congress tends to pass legislation in bulk, so there’s concern it could be packaged with a “poison pill,” like legislation to fast-track logging in the Tongass National Forest, that could delay its renewal. If it isn’t passed before a new Congress begins in January, lawmakers will have to start over.
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