[Congressional Record Volume 161, Number 146 (Tuesday, October 6, 2015)]
[Senate]
[Pages S7156-S7157]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
LAND AND WATER CONSERVATION FUND
Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, imagine a successful and popular program
that saves our special natural places, such as parks, recreation areas,
wildlife refuges, and forests. Imagine further that this is
accomplished not with tax dollars, but with royalties paid by companies
that extract oil or minerals from our public lands. What is not to love
about a program like that? Now imagine that some in Congress want to
kill or weaken that program. In fact, its charter just expired on
October 1.
For 50 years, a bipartisan commitment has promoted the preservation
of our national parks, forests, and refuges and the vistas that are so
iconic in our national identity. But today we find ourselves yet again
in the midst of a made-in-Washington crisis that devalues this history
of shared commitment, replacing it with the misplaced ire of those who
do not understand its profound, community-driven impact on the land and
on our economy.
On September 30, the authorization of the Land and Water Conservation
Fund, LWCF, America's most successful conservation and recreation
program, was allowed to expire. Founded on the principle of balancing
the depletion of certain natural resources by conserving other
resources, the fund uses revenues from royalties of offshore oil and
gas extraction to support the conservation of our land and water, a
symmetry that conservation advocates have praised. More to the point,
the fund is supported at no cost to taxpayers. Similarly, congressional
inaction allowed the Historic Preservation Fund--also a budget-neutral
program with longstanding bipartisan support--to lapse. Together, these
twin programs represent key commitments to protecting our Nation's
historic resources and lands for future generations.
For 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has supported the
creation of parks and refuges, but it has also filled in plots of land
at risk of loss through development in our national parks to create a
seamless park system that is easier and more cost-effective to manage.
It has provided resources to local communities to achieve otherwise
cost-prohibitive conservation projects in small towns. It supports
community playgrounds and maintains trails, while fostering and
protecting our innate appreciation of the world around us, and it
accomplishes all of this while being a boon to local economies.
In Vermont more than $123 million in LWCF grants have supported
hundreds projects over the last five decades, and the benefits can be
seen across every county in the Green Mountain State. These grants back
an economy of outdoor recreation supporting 35,000 jobs, generating
$187 million in state tax revenue and $2.5 billion in retail sales in
Vermont alone, according to the Outdoor Industry Association. On top of
this, an estimated 545,000 people hunt, fish, and enjoy the wildlife of
the Green Mountain State every year--a stunning number that nearly
matches our State's entire population.
In addition to local recreation projects, the LWCF in Vermont has
supported the creation of our State's only national park, the Marsh
Billings Rockefeller National Historical Park. It has helped to add
100,000 acres to the
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Green Mountain National Forest, to establish the Conte National
Wildlife Refuge, and to forever preserve large swaths of the
Appalachian and Long Trails. These are treasures today, preserved for
future generations.
Across the country, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been
valued as America's premier conservation program--an outgrowth of what
has been called ``America's Best Idea,'' the creation of our National
Park System. It has drawn strong bipartisan support for half a century,
even as the political atmosphere has become more divisive. I recently
led a bipartisan coalition of 53 Senators representing every corner of
the Nation in asking for a short-term extension of the LWCF and a
commitment to work to permanently authorize and fund the program. We
sent a similar letter calling on Majority Leader McConnell and Minority
Leader Reid to support permanent funding for the program, which was
followed by a similar bipartisan letter from members of the House to
Speaker Boehner.
But despite this strong bipartisan and bicameral support, there are
those who seek to throw this longstanding, commonsense program out the
window, shutting down one of the few reliable sources that fund
conservation work across the country, a truly devastating bid that
threatens our land and water and our local economies. It makes no
sense.
Several times last week, opponents of the widely popular LWCF
objected to extending its authorization, claiming that the fund was
used to purchase privately held land from landowners. But that is
precisely what the fund is intended to support: the purchase of land
from willing sellers interested in seeing land protected rather than
developed. Often these land deals include land exchanges, thus ensuring
that the Nation's most sensitive lands are not developed, while
ensuring that other working lands remain privately owned.
Too often we see these deals evaporate because the funding is not
there. This is why we need to ensure the fund is permanently authorized
and fully funded. These projects should not slip away, as we have seen
in Vermont and other parts of the country, because of a fundamental
misunderstanding of how the fund operates and how it is supported.
We have watched conservation funding wither across the country while
developments encroach our precious national parks and while the real
threat of climate change draws closer and closer. Now is not the time
to break a commitment to conserve our natural resources, our heritage,
and the legacy we will hand to our children and grandchildren. We must
value and protect our heritage by renewing the Land and Water
Conservation Fund.
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