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Mr. REED. Mr. President, on September 3, 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. The Land and Water Conservation Fund, or LWCF, was created by Congress to use revenues from Outer Continental Shelf oil and gas development--a non-renewable resource--to invest in America's renewable resources by creating parks and open spaces, protecting wilderness, wetlands and refuges, preserving habitat, and enhancing recreational opportunities.
The LWCF has been a remarkable conservation success story. In its 35-year history, LWCF has supported the acquisition of nearly 7 million acres of parkland and the development of more than 37,000 park and recreation projects. In my state of Rhode Island alone, LWCF has invested over $32 million in nearly 400 state and local parks projects, including $1.7 million for development of Roger Williams Park in Providence, $1.1 million for Scarborough State Beach in Narragansett, and $536,000 for rehabilitation of the famous Cliff Walk in Newport. Because State and local governments provide at least half of initial project costs and assume all operation and maintenance costs in perpetuity, each Federal dollar leverages several dollars in non-Federal contributions.
But despite the LWCF's success, funding for the program has fallen well below its authorized level of $900 million per year, and the stateside grant program was completely zeroed out in 1995, even as offshore oil and gas revenues increased and the need for parks and open space continued to rise dramatically.
Last year, President Clinton proposed an historic Lands Legacy budget initiative to fully fund the LWCF at its authorized level. Although appropriators did not fully fund the Lands Legacy budget request, Members of Congress are clearly getting the message Americans are sending to Washington about the need for major conservation legislation to promote open space and recreation.
On May 11, the House of Representatives passed H.R. 701, the Conservation and Reinvestment Act of 2000, by a vote of 315-102. The ``CARA'' bill, which would automatically set aside revenues from offshore oil and gas leases to fully fund the Federal and State LWCF grant programs for the first time in decades, was the product of an extraordinary bipartisan compromise between the House Resources Committee chairman, DON YOUNG, and the ranking member, GEORGE MILLER. The CARA bill would provide nearly $3 billion annually until 2015 to support conservation efforts across the country.
All eyes are now on the Senate, Mr. President. Across the country, Americans in cities, suburbs, and rural areas have joined State Governors, city and town planners, wildlife program managers, hunters and fishermen, and environmental organizations to call on the Senate to act on this historic legislation.
Several bills have been introduced in the Senate:
S. 2123, introduced by Senators LANDRIEU and MURKOWSKI, is identical to H.R. 701 as reported by the House Resources Committee;
S. 2567, introduced by Senator BOXER, is identical to H.R. 701 as passed by the full House;
S. 2181, introduced by Senator BINGAMAN, would support many of the same programs as the House bill but would distribute a greater percentage of LWCF stateside funds evenly among the states, benefitting states with small populations, such as Rhode Island. In addition, it would support a number of marine research and conservation programs;
And there are several more bills, all of which seek to fully fund the LWCF and preserve our natural heritage for future generations.
Mr. President, none of these bills is perfect; there is always room for improvement. Members of the Senate may disagree, for example, on how much funding should go to coastal assistance, or federal land acquisition in western states, or endangered species protection. I, for one, believe it is critically important that we provide $125 million or more each year for the Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery, UPARR, program, as well as full annual funding of $150 million for the Historic Preservation Fund. We should also avoid creating incentives for new offshore oil and gas drilling.
Whatever our differences over the details of this legislation, Mr. President, the important thing is that we pass a bill this year. Any one of these conservation bills would represent an unprecedented and desperately needed investment in our natural resources and our cultural and historic heritage.
But we have to act soon. There are, at best, 33 legislative days left in the 106th Congress. Many members of this body, myself included, are disappointed that the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee has postponed several markups of the CARA bill. But we understand that Chairman MURKOWSKI and ranking member BINGAMAN are working to satisfy a wide array of regional interests on the Committee, and we continue to hope that an agreement can be reached in time for the Committee to approve the bill next week. We would urge the Majority
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I look forward to working with my colleagues to send to the President a bill that will respond to our constituents' overwhelming calls for Congress to make a substantial and reliable investment in the conservation of our Nation's wildlife, coastal resources, and open spaces. The momentum is with us, and we should not miss this rare opportunity to create a conservation legacy for generations to come.
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