Washington, D.C. — With just over one month until the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) expires on September 30th, the League of Conservation Voters announced new digital  ads urging Reps. John Culberson (TX-07), Darrell Issa (CA-49), Scott Perry (PA-04), and Kevin Yoder (KS-03) to support permanent reauthorization and full funding for the nation’s best parks program.

“With just over one month until the Land and Water Conservation Fund expires, we need House members like Reps. Culberson, Issa, Perry, and Yoder to join efforts to save LWCF before the clock runs out,” said Alex Taurel, LCV Conservation Program Director. “In every corner of the country, LWCF has helped communities create new parks and connect people to the great outdoors. Congress must support our parks and not let our most successful conservation program expire.”

The digital ads, which will run on Facebook, highlight LWCF-funded sites in each member’s district and encourage them to cosponsor and demand a vote on H.R. 502, a bipartisan bill with 232 cosponsors that permanently reauthorizes LWCF. Republican leaders in the House have not committed to bring the bill to the floor before LWCF expires.

Digital ads can be found here: Culberson, Issa, Perry, Yoder

All four members voted for an amendment last month to the Interior-EPA spending bill sponsored by Rep. Andy Biggs (AZ-05) that would have cut $2.4 million from LWCF. The amendment was rejected decisively, with more than 50 House Republicans opposing the provision, but Culberson, Perry, Yoder, and Issa all also voted for the overall bill which included $65 million in cuts to LWCF.  

LWCF has helped protect some of America’s most iconic landscapes like Rocky Mountain National Park in Colorado and Glacier National Park in Montana, as well as culturally significant places like the Canyons of the Ancients National Monument and the Martin Luther King National Historic Site. It’s also supported urban open spaces, from New York City’s Central Park to neighborhood ball fields and local parks in nearly every county and congressional district in the country.

While LWCF is funded through revenue from offshore oil drilling instead of taxpayer dollars, Congress has chronically underfunded the program. The Trump administration’s recent budget proposals nearly eliminate LWCF entirely, slashing funding by roughly 90 percent. In June, LCV launched a $1 million campaign to build support for reauthorizing LWCF by highlighting parks in communities nationwide and holding members of Congress accountable.

The campaign to save LWCF is part of LCV’s ongoing “Our Lands, Our Voice” campaign to fight the Trump administration’s myriad attacks on public lands.

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