Washington, DC — The National Wildlife Federation praised a tentative bipartisan agreement by the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund, address the parks and public lands maintenance backlog, and increase restoration funding for the Gulf coast. The Federation urged Congress to guarantee full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act, as part of the final bipartisan package.

“In this era of partisan gridlock, conservation is one area where Republicans and Democrats can still find common ground,” said Collin O’Mara, president and CEO of the National Wildlife Federation. “There is strong bipartisan support for reversing America’s wildlife crisis, fixing our public lands and parks, and sustaining the Land and Water Conservation Fund for future generations. Chairman Rob Bishop, Ranking Member Raul Gijalva and the House Natural Resources Committee took important initial steps today toward advancing a solution on par with the scale of the challenges we face. We encourage the Congress to include dedicated funding for both the Land and Water Conservation Fund and the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act as part of the final deal to ensure that sufficient resources are available to address the escalating challenges we face.”

The National Wildlife Federation has been one of the leading voices working to reauthorize and fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund. It also has pressed lawmakers to help the one third of all wildlife species that are at risk by passing the bipartisan Recovering America’s Wildlife Act and addressing the public lands maintenance backlog by passing the Restore our Parks and Public Lands Act.

Additional Resources:

NWF letter on the Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act - July 25, 2018