Washington, D.C. – After the House of Representatives left town without permanently reauthorizing and fully funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) before the September 30th deadline, the League of Conservation Voters released the following statement from President Gene Karpinski:

“It’s outrageous that the Republican-led Congress is allowing the Land and Water Conservation Fund to expire. It should be a no-brainer to extend a commonsense, bipartisan program that increases access to our national parks and other public lands, boosts outdoor recreation businesses, and creates local parks that enhance quality of life for people all across the country. But this Congress – the most anti-environmental in recent history – has now turned its back on our nation’s best parks program, adding to the list of their many attacks on our air, water, lands and public health.

“LWCF has bipartisan support in both chambers of Congress. Its expiration is a clear failure of leadership, starting with House Speaker Paul Ryan and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to even schedule votes. Communities need Congress to fix this and save America’s best parks program.”