Erik Dumont
Environment America
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate held a hearing Thursday on David Bernhardt’s nomination for Secretary of the Interior, just weeks after the Senate and House voted with lopsided, bipartisan majorities to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Erik DuMont, Public Lands Campaign Director for Environment America, released the following statement:
“The Land and Water Conservation Fund is America’s most successful conservation and recreation program. Public support is deep and broad, and Interior nominee Bernhardt needs to commit to fully funding the program.
“Bernhardt’s home state of Colorado is bisected by the Continental Divide; waters flow from the mighty Rockies downhill to the Pacific in the west and the Gulf and Atlantic in the east. Much like those waters, the LWCF has enhanced Americans’ lives from coast to coast, funding everything from national parks, forests and wildlife refuges, to local parks, hiking trails and even Little League fields.
“With the passage of the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act, the LWCF has been permanently authorized for the first time. However, instead of the program automatically getting the $900 million in offshore drilling royalties that it should, annual funding depends on the appropriations process.
“There’s bipartisan support in Congress for this, and we need to make sure that the Interior nominee embraces full funding, too.”
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Environment America is the national federation of statewide, citizen-based advocacy organizations working for a cleaner, greener, healthier future.
For a list of projects funded by LWCF, go to https://www.lwcfcoalition.com/.