House Committee on Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) today issued the following statement on efforts to modernize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Act of 1965.

“Both Republicans and Democrats support the original intent of the Land and Water Conservation Fund, but the program has drifted far from the original intent.  Under my chairmanship, the status quo will be challenged.  Any reauthorization of LWCF will, among other improvements, prioritize local communities as originally intended.”

“Special interests that seek to hijack LWCF to continue to expand the federal estate and divert even more monies away from localities conveniently claim the world is ending on September 30^th.  The only thing that expires on September 30^th is the ability to accrue additional revenues into the fund, which currently has an unappropriated balance of $20 billion in taxpayer dollars. How many billions more do these special interests group need?”

Under the original LWCF authorization in 1965, 60 percent of the funds in the program were specifically set aside for the Stateside Program. Last year, Stateside received just 16 percent of LWCF funds.

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