November 5, 2015

The House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) released a discussion draft of legislation titled, the Protecting America’s Recreation and Conservation (PARC) Act, which aims to reform and reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF expired on September 30, 2015. 

The Chairman’s draft bill would maintain the LWCF authorization of $900 million through September 2022, but would redirect a large portion of the funds to state recreation grants, urban areas, conservation legal rights, and wildlife conservation. The bill would set more stringent limits (no more than 3.5 percent of funds) to federal land acquisition in order to provide funding for state investments. The bill would also require that 20 percent of funds go toward supporting the development of offshore energy production by streamlining permitting processes.

The House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing to consider the draft legislation on November 18, during which the bill received much criticism from Democratic members and pro-LWCF Republicans. The future funding of LWCF is now in the hands of appropriators, who will decide  whether or not the program will  continue to be funded at its current level of $300 million.

Sources: eenews, naturalresources.house.gov