Washington, D.C. – After the House Committee on Natural Resources moved forward a plan to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the League of Conservation Voters released the following statement from Conservation Program Director Alex Taurel:

“This is a step forward, but the Land and Water Conservation Fund deserves full, dedicated funding just as the committee has dedicated money to addressing the national parks maintenance backlog. Maintenance simply isn’t enough to protect the future of our national parks and public lands – it’s LWCF that secures access to trails and prevents inappropriate development within park boundaries. It is now up to rank and file Republicans to push their leadership for a vote to fully fund and permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund before America’s best parks program expires at the end of the month.”

LCV outlined why any proposal to address the parks maintenance backlog must also fully support LWCF in a blog post last month. 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.