Energy and Water Development and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016--Motion to Proceed

Floor Speech

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Mr. LEE. Madam President, I want to be very clear about what it is we are talking about today. We are discussing the expiration of the Land and Water Conservation Fund's ability to accrue additional revenues to the fund and nothing more.

According to the Congressional Research Service, the Land and Water Conservation Fund currently has an unappropriated balance of around $20 billion that can be appropriated in implementing LWCF projects. If you assume the current rate of appropriations is roughly $300 million per year, it would take around 60 years before that fund is exhausted.

Meanwhile, we have both the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and its House counterpart, the House Natural Resources Committee, working on reforms to the LWCF to address some of the issues that are causing a lot of people to be concerned with the LWCF. These issues involve, for instance, the maintenance backlog that we have with regard to many of our national parks and public lands and also with regard to the manner in which the Federal Government acquires new land. This is of concern to many of us, especially those of us who come from a State like mine where the Federal Government owns nearly 70 percent of the land.

On that basis, Madam President, I object.

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Mr. LEE. Madam President, just to clarify. We have two committees, one in the Senate and one in the House, looking at the possibilities for reforming this program. I am confident we can find agreement on how this program ought to be reformed. That is my goal, and I will continue to work toward that end. I want to make sure we have reforms put in place as we reauthorize this.

In the meantime, I want to be clear: This doesn't do anything to halt the program as a whole. This just deals with the accrual of revenue to a fund that has an accumulated unappropriated balance of $20 billion. We certainly have time. This shouldn't be rushed through. We need to give the committees the time they need in order to work out the reforms needed.

I thank the Presiding Officer, and I yield the floor.

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