Permanent LWCF funding full speed ahead after decades of talk
Kellie Lunney, E&E News reporter Published: Thursday, March 5, 2020
A bipartisan group of Senate lawmakers addressing national parks and Land and Water Conservation Fund legislation yesterday. Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.)/Facebook
Congress is poised to pass the most significant conservation legislation in at least 50 years because dozens of lawmakers worked across the aisle for years to make it happen.
But election-year politics and a presidential tweet also could take ample credit if the bill is enacted.
The sausage-making has been worth it to get to this "extraordinary" moment, several Democrats and Republicans who strongly support the Land and Water Conservation Fund said yesterday during a Senate press conference.
"I really don't care," said Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on whether President Trump's embrace this week of mandatory funding for LWCF had more to do with electoral politics than a sudden change of heart about a program his administration has repeatedly tried to gut.
"The politics, whatever they want to play with it, this needs to...