[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 11]
[Senate]
[Pages 15687-15688]
[From the U.S. 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 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

[[Page 15688]]

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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