Statement by Mark Van Putten
President & CEO, National Wildlife Federation
On Bipartisan Conservation & Reinvestment Act (CARA)
Before Senate Energy & Natural Resources Committee

Victory is now in sight for the most comprehensive conservation funding legislation in the nation's history with the bipartisan agreement struck on CARA by the leadership of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.

Committee Chair Frank Murkowski (R-AK) and ranking member Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) deserve the thanks – and above all the active support – of all Americans who care about conservation for successfully negotiating a CARA agreement that the full committee can move forward for passage in the Senate. The agreement builds on H.R. 701, the version of CARA that passed the House by a resounding 315 to102 majority in May.

While improvement is still needed, CARA's historic dimension should be kept clearly in sight. This legislation offers the nation a unique opportunity to begin a century of conservation achievement with reliable, long-term funding that spells promise for healthy wildlife populations in the future, not more species becoming imperiled; healing our most damaged coastal areas, not further deterioration; and the inclusion of special landscapes into our national and state recreational legacy, not their permanent loss to short term development. CARA is the most significant investment any Congress has ever considered in America's conservation future.

The best course of action now is for the committee to act on the agreement, and for the leadership to assure CARA receives full Senate consideration.

The Senate agreement improves the House version with two notable exceptions. The House provision to assure no incentive is created for new offshore oil and gas drilling should be included in the final bill during the legislative process. The Senate should also restore the House language that provides incentives to private landowners whose property provides habitat for threatened or endangered wildlife.

The improvements in the Senate agreement over H.R. 701 are also notable:

• The priority of funding "for those species with the greatest conservation need" for the $350 million annual state wildlife programs should ensure that non-game species receive attention.

• The Senate agreement significantly lowers and restricts the amount of coastal assistance funds that could be spent on infrastructure projects, as distinct from environmental restoration work.

• The Senate agreement successfully resolves the most important concerns to assure the proper funding and functioning of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

• The Senate agreement takes an important positive step by including Native American wildlife programs within the allocations for wildlife programs.

We applaud Sens. Murkowski and Bingaman, and their Senate colleagues such as Sen. Mary Landrieu (D-LA) and Sen. Robert C. Smith (R-NH) for finding the common ground basis of bipartisan agreement.

We urge the committee to act decisively in forwarding this legislation to the full Senate. We ask the Senate leadership to give public assurance and practical effect to the urgency of seeing to it that the full Senate has the opportunity to act on this legislation in time for its enactment during this session of Congress.

We call on all Americans who care about wildlife and wild places to add their voices to the national chorus of support to win the victory for conservation funding in this Congress.