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Frisco, Colorado

Congressman Joe Neguse Leads Letter Requesting Full LWCF Funding in FY2020 Budget

November 19, 2019

Washington D.C.—Today Congressman Joe Neguse sent a letter to House appropriators signed by over 60 of his colleagues, urging full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). Earlier this year, Congress passed the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act (S.47) to permanently reauthorize LWCF at its full funding level of $900 million and more recently the House passed the FY2020 Interior Appropriations bill (H.R. 3055), which provides $524 million for LWCF, a much-needed increase of $89 million and the highest level of funding in over fifteen years. The letter from Congressman Neguse urges that “more can and must be done to provide the funding level this critical program needs and deserves.”

“The Land and Water Conservation Fund is our nation’s premier conservation program, funding over 42,000 projects in all fifty states and every congressional district since its creation in the 1960s,” states the letter from Congressman Neguse.  “It protects everything from national parks and national landmarks to local trails in urban and rural communities to areas for hunters and fishermen. Investments in LWCF not only support land conservation, they are a sound investment in our economy. The LWCF has created thousands of jobs in the outdoor recreation economy and every $1 spent by LWCF generates $4 in economic value to both rural communities and cities.”

“We lose an area the size of Colorado’s Cherry Creek State Park to development roughly every day,” said Jim Ramey, Colorado State Director at the Wilderness Society. “In the face of the climate and extinction crises, America’s most successful conservation program deserves full funding to unleash its full potential.”

Despite the successes of the LWCF program, the LWCF has received its authorized funding level only twice and a significant amount of the funding – totaling roughly $20 billion – for LWCF has been diverted away from conservation and recreation funding. This underfunding has led to a backlog of unmet conservation needs across the United States with an estimated $30 billion backlog for conservation at the federal level and another $27 billion at the state level. Full funding of the LWCF is needed to provide the resources needed to address the growing backlog of conservation projects and address national, state, regional, and local conservation priorities.

There is strong bipartisan support in the House for increasing LWCF funding. During debate on the FY 2020 Interior Appropriations bill in June, the House passed an amendment offered by Reps. Neguse (D-CO), Cunningham (D-SC), and Torres Small (D-NM) supporting increased LWCF funding. This amendment passed by an overwhelming vote of 325-107, with all Democrats present and 91 Republicans voting in support. View Neguse debating this amendment here. 

“We are at a critical juncture and cannot ease up,” writes Congressman Neguse in the letter. “Now that the Senate has passed their FY2020 Interior and Environment bill, the House must push for strong LWCF funding as we move forward into conference negotiations.”

Read the full letter here.