Land and Water Conservation Fund monies locked in

Delegate Gregorio Kilili C. Sablan (Ind-MP) said yesterday that President Donald Trump has signed the Great American Outdoors Act in Washington, D.C. The new law provides permanent funding for the annual Land and Water Conservation Fund grant to the Marianas and areas around the country. The Great American Outdoors Act also funds long-overdue maintenance needs at parks managed by the National Park Service, including the American Memorial Park on Saipan. Over the next five years, $6.65 billion will be allocated for repairs at facilities run by NPS. American Memorial Park is on the agency’s list for $10.6 million in repairs.

The Great American Outdoors Act will lock in about $800,000 annually for the Marianas to plan, develop, and maintain outdoor recreation areas. The act puts together a number of environmental bills in a single legislative package, including H.R. 3195, the Land and Water Conservation Fund Permanent Funding Act. Sablan was an original cosponsor of H.R. 3195 when it was introduced on June 11, 2019 and voted for the bill when it passed through the Natural Resources Committee later that month. A total of 21 Democrats voted in favor; 13 Republicans opposed.

H.R. 3195 provides full, permanent funding of $900 million in offshore oil and gas revenues each year to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which in turn means about $800,000 annually for the Marianas.

The Marianas Land and Water Conservation Fund grant increased 10-fold last year with passage of the John J. Dingell Jr. Conservation, Management and Recreation Act. Like the Great American Outdoors Act, that bill also was an opportunity for over a hundred separate legislative proposals to piggyback to passage. Included was legislation that Sablan and other non-state area representatives had pushed for years, giving each of their areas a state-share of Land and Water Conservation Fund monies. Previously, the five insular areas and the District of Columbia all split one state-share. For the Marianas that meant only $70,000 on average.

But even with the full state share guaranteed in the Dingell Act, funding for all LWCF grants nationwide was still subject to annual appropriation limits, until yesterday’s signing of the Great American Outdoors Act locked in the oil and gas revenues as a permanent funding mechanism. Congressional appropriations have varied widely since the Fund’s establishment, with Congress appropriating the fully authorized level of $900 million on only two occasions, in fiscal years 1998 and 2001. (PR)