[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 2]
[Senate]
[Pages 1828-1830]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   UNANIMOUS CONSENT REQUEST--S. 338

  Mr. BURR. Mr. President, I rise to tell my colleagues that shortly I 
intend to ask unanimous consent to call up S. 338, but prior to that I 
would like to say a few things about it. S. 338 was introduced by 
myself, Senator Bennet, and Senator Ayotte. What it would do is 
permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It would 
also guarantee that a small portion of any appropriated money goes 
toward maintaining access for those who use our public lands, the 
American people.
  The Land and Water Conservation Fund is essential to making public 
lands public, by securing recreational areas, particularly where 
opportunities for sportsmen and others to access existing public lands 
are limited or precluded. As I am sure the Presiding Officer is aware, 
this program expires on September 30 and we can no longer wait to 
reauthorize what I believe is dollar for dollar one of the most 
effective government programs we have.
  This is an investment that rivals any Wall Street honey of a deal 
that I have ever heard of. Every $1 spent has roughly $4 rates of 
return in either matching funds or money contributed back into our 
economy. This is an economic driver. The bait and the tackle shop, the 
outdoor apparel equipment store, the guide service, the mom-and-pop 
lodge, these are all local jobs. They cannot be outsourced. I realize 
this town does not take care of--it does not care much about budgets or 
responsible spending, but the simple truth is this program is a trust 
fund codified by law--by law--every year. No less than $900 million in 
royalties are paid by energy companies drilling for oil and gas on the 
Outer Continental Shelf. They are put into this fund--royalties off of 
energy exploration, something Congress when they in their infinite 
wisdom set up this program said they were a good thing.
  Every year no less than $900 million in royalties are paid and go 
into this fund. The money is intended to, one, protect areas around 
national parks, rivers, and lakes. I note to my colleagues not 
``create'' national parks, to ``protect''; two, to provide buffers for 
national forests and national wildlife refuges from development; three, 
to provide matching grants for State and local parks and recreation 
projects. In fiscal year 2013, the Department of the Interior collected 
more than $29 billion from offshore production. How much of that went 
to LWCF--$306 million. That is barely one-third of the amount deposited 
at the Treasury Department for this purpose. Talk about highway 
robbery.
  I can point to numerous years where this has been the case. Over the 
life of the program more than $18 billion of land and water 
conservation funding has been diverted into the general fund to pay for 
programs other than what they were intended to be there for. This is a 
covenant with the American people that we have broken time and time and 
time again. It needs to stop.
  My colleagues, this is not a land grab. It is not a land grab program 
as some have suggested it is. I would suggest to everyone it is a land 
solution. It is a tool. The LWCF goes toward the purchase of 
inholdings, those pieces of property that are inside a protected piece 
that is valuable for the future. The only reason there are inholdings 
is that they were not available when that tract was put together. It is 
used to buy property adjacent to existing boundaries and can help solve 
management problems rather than add to them.
  I wish to give my colleagues one example: Clarks River National 
Wildlife Refuge in the great State of Kentucky. Acquisition of the 
tract there completed a connection between the refuge lands and the 
Clarks River. Previously, access to the river required excessive hiking 
because there was no approved vehicle access.
  These access issues also limited the refuge's ability to provide 
environmental education and interpretation programs. Now the site 
provides access to the river for school groups, their transportation, 
and allows refuge staff to provide hands-on environmental instruction 
to students.
  We went from a situation where you can only walk to this land to an 
acquisition by a conservation component funded by royalties of oil and 
gas exploration, and now vehicles can actually ride on it. School 
children can go there and go through transitional education for the 
purposes of understanding why this is so valuable to protect.
  Most lands acquired with LWCF funds are within the existing 
boundaries of a Federal park, refuge, forest or other recreational 
areas. Much of the rest is used for conservation easements and State 
grants, which do not add to Federal management costs.
  Let me state that again. When we allow this process to take place, we 
actually reduced the burden on Federal agencies from a standpoint of 
their management responsibilities with Federal dollars.
  These partnerships through LWCF easements are a win-win. They keep 
ranchers and farmers on their land while maintaining wildlife habitat 
and open spaces. Strategic LWCF purchases can defuse conflicts with 
private landowners by securing permanent access for sportsmen.
  With changing land use and ownership patterns, areas that were once 
open and usable are now either blocked or cut off. Public lands are 
often sometimes inherently sequestered from roads and towns by narrow 
pieces of private-ownership land. LWCF funds bring together sportsmen 
and willing sellers with the intent of open access for everyone.
  The Land and Water Conservation Fund is a down payment. It is a down 
payment on an investment that sustains the American way of life. The 
best part, I say to my colleagues, is that it is paid for.
  I am not here to suggest that I want to tackle the pittance that the 
fund receives and how much it was promised. I am only here today, along 
with my colleague from Colorado, to call up the bill to permanently 
authorize this program so that we don't go through this exercise every 
time that reauthorization is needed.
  In a country that continues to explore for energy--and I hope we 
continue and become self-sufficient--let's use the portion of the 
resources that we can to fuel the beach renourishment, to rebuild the 
dunes, to buy those inholdings to get buffer zones around those 
treasures we try to protect. As we do that, let's open it up to

[[Page 1829]]

American sportsmen to hunt, to fish, to use. That is what LWCF is 
about.
  Let's start acting as if the agreement we made with the American 
people 50 years ago actually means something. Let's authorize 
permanently the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
  Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that at a time to be 
determined by the majority leader, in consultation with the Democratic 
leader, the Senate proceed to the consideration of S. 338; that there 
be up to 1 hour equally divided in the usual form; that following the 
use or yielding back of that time, the bill be read a third time, and 
the Senate vote on passage of the bill with no intervening action or 
debate.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Utah.
  Mr. LEE. Mr. President, reserving the right to object, the Land and 
Water Conservation Fund is used for a number of purposes, although the 
primary purpose involves the acquisition of new Federal land. Funding 
the acquisition of new Federal land at a time when Federal agencies can 
barely take care of the land they already have does raise some rather 
significant questions that need to be addressed.
  The Department of Interior faces a combined maintenance backlog of 
over $20 billion--$13 billion in our National Park Service alone. We 
struggle with ways to fund the Payment in Lieu of Taxes Program, the 
intent of which was to mitigate the burden of Federal land to local 
communities where there is an abundance of Federal land that can't be 
taxed.
  Coming from a State that is dominated by Federal land ownership--two-
thirds of the land in Utah is controlled by Federal agencies. Any new 
Federal land ownership must be examined with a healthy degree of 
skepticism. There are many issues that need to be considered and 
debated before we reauthorize any program that would potentially expand 
the Federal Government's land holdings.
  I certainly support opening our public lands for recreation, 
including for purposes related to hunting and fishing, and I believe 
that the Land and Water Conservation Fund could also be used to 
mitigate the negative impacts of Federal regulations on private 
property such as listings under the Endangered Species Act.
  But reform isn't likely to happen. In fact, reform may well be 
impossible if we allow this bill to pass as is without going through 
the proper procedures. This bill should be subject to debate and 
amendment, first at the committee level and then on the floor of the 
Senate.
  That is what needs to happen, and on that basis I object.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Objection is heard.
  The Senator from Colorado.
  Mr. BENNET. I thank my friend from North Carolina for his efforts, 
and I wish to echo a lot of the points he already made so well, 
especially about how we stand here today having this fair, reasonable, 
unanimous consent request that the Senator from North Carolina has 
asked for, as we stand here today when essentially what we are talking 
about is a promise that has been broken by this Congress to the 
American people for 50 years.
  I thank, through the Chair, my colleague from North Carolina for 
trying to rectify that.
  I am disappointed that our unanimous consent request was objected to, 
but I know this measure has plenty of support. As he mentioned, we led 
an amendment on the floor last week with the exact same text of the 
bill that we are discussing today. When the dust settled, that 
amendment received 59 votes, but I have a hunch that it would 
comfortably clear the 60-vote threshold were it to be considered again. 
And it should be considered again.
  The measure is simple. As Senator Burr said, it simply reauthorizes 
the Land and Water Conservation Fund and ensures that a dedicated 
portion of LWCF funds go to provide new access for our Nation's sports 
men and women.
  As most in this body know, LWCF is one of the country's best 
conservation programs. It provides $900 million annually to preserve 
our public lands and increase access to them. Not only do we need to 
pass this bill to reauthorize the program, but we need to ensure that 
we dedicate full and mandatory funding to the initiative, as Congress 
intended when we created the program in 1964.
  Historically, LWCF resources have been used for all types of 
projects, ranging from building city parks to purchasing small parcels 
of isolated land from willing sellers and all the way to preserving our 
Nation's historic battlefields.
  In Colorado, we have used LWCF for a wide variety of projects beyond 
traditional conservation. For example, LWCF was of critical importance 
to our State following a major natural disaster in 1976. That year an 
intense rainstorm caused massive flooding around Colorado's Big 
Thompson River. The flood claimed the lives of 145 Coloradans and 
caused more than $35 million in damages.
  Once the horrible tragedy passed, the community had to rebuild. 
Rather than constructing houses back in the flood plain, Larimer County 
turned to LWCF to acquire the affected land and compensated the 
families whose homes were destroyed.
  Those flood plains are now home to four new county parks--popular 
destinations for birdwatchers, anglers, and family picnics--instead of 
vulnerable structures. When another huge flood hit in the fall of 2013, 
the rivers ran black and eventually surged over their banks, as we can 
see from this photo I have in the Chamber.
  Luckily, the flood plains, protected by LWCF and the creativity of 
our local folks, saw much less damage this time. The floodwaters 
inundated the open, undeveloped spaces instead of destroying homes and 
businesses, and Larimer County avoided about $16 million in estimated 
property damages.
  It is incredible to think that an LWCF investment of just over $1 
million in 1976 saved us more than 15 times that amount in 2013.
  Beyond the example from Larimer County, communities all across 
Colorado have used LWCF to preserve sensitive landscapes and to help 
their local economies. This past summer, we completed a huge LWCF 
project in the San Juan National Forest near the town of Ophir. I spoke 
briefly about this project last week, and I will mention it again today 
because the work of the town of Ophir and the people of Ophir, along 
with their partners, the Trust for Public Land, were truly remarkable.
  If memory serves, it is a project that took 12 years from start to 
finish. It had to be done in phases. LWCF funds were used to acquire 
several old mining claims above town, preserving the scenic beauty and 
ensuring that the area will remain undeveloped forever.
  In this picture, if you ignore the center with these people in front 
of me, we can see how beautiful it is. This is a picture of the newly 
preserved landscape in Ophir. A group of us gathered to celebrate the 
accomplishment this past summer.
  Most of these mountain communities get huge portions of their revenue 
and business from recreation and tourism. It is for some of these 
reasons that the town felt the Land and Water Conservation Fund 
literally helped secure their economic future.
  This is a small, rural community in my home State. It is far away 
from this floor. LWCF has made a huge difference for Ophir.
  These are two stories from Colorado, but I know they have been 
replicated thousands of times across the country and in all 50 States. 
Those stories and accomplishments alone make this bill worth 
supporting.
  As I mentioned earlier, Congress wrote and passed LWCF in 1964, and 
it is beyond time to reauthorize it. Senator Burr has shown great 
leadership in crafting a bill to do just that.
  Conservation policies--from LWCF to farm bill easement programs, from 
wilderness to national parks--are important to the American people. The 
American people support this work. Protecting our land and water is 
part of our everyday lives in Colorado, and I know our State is not the 
only one.
  Conserved lands and wide-open spaces are a huge economic driver 
across the

[[Page 1830]]

country, a huge part of our culture. They are who we are in the West. 
We should do right by the American people and reauthorize this program 
as soon as possible. Then we ought to work together to ensure that LWCF 
gets the full and mandatory funding going forward that was promised 50 
years ago by Congress.
  With that, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The bill clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Mr. LEAHY. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order for 
the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.

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