In an effort to meet their goal to cut discretionary spending, the subcommittee in the U.S. House of Representatives that is focused on natural resource spending moved legislation that would completely eliminate or significantly reduce funding for several critical conservation programs, reports the Wildlife Management Institute. The Senate released a draft of their bill in early August that would maintain far better funding levels. However, based on recent history, the subcommittees' efforts are largely political maneuvering since the natural resource funding bill has not been enacted independently in a number of years.

On July 22, the House Appropriations Committee's Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Subcommittee released their fiscal year 2014 Interior and Environment Appropriations Bill that includes an overall cut of 19 percent ($5.5 billion) from the 2013 enacted level. The subcommittee passed the bill shortly after, and debate began in the full Appropriations committee before the House recessed for the month of August. The bill eliminates funding for the North American Wetlands Conservation Act (NAWCA), the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), the State Wildlife Grants, the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, and Landscape Conservation Cooperatives. In addition, agency operating budgets are slated for significant overall reductions including a 27 percent cut for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, a proposed $75.5 million cut for the Bureau of Land Management, a more than $100 million cut to the U.S. Geological Survey, and a nearly 50 percent reduction to the Forest Service's Forest and Rangeland Research programs.

"Simply put, this bill makes very difficult choices in an extremely tough budget environment. In order to fund critical 'must-do' priorities, like human health, public safety, and treaty obligations and responsibilities, we've had to reduce and even terminate some programs that are popular with both Members of Congress and the American people," said Interior Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson. "Within challenging budget constraints, we've focused on providing adequate funding to fight and prevent wildfires, making sure our national parks stay open, and meeting our trust responsibilities to American Indians. Paying for these critical priorities comes at a price to many agencies and activities throughout the bill. We are going to continue to see these kinds of dramatic reductions as long as we keep trying to reduce the debt by cutting discretionary spending alone, rather than also tackling mandatory spending, which is the real driver of our debt."

The Chairman and Ranking Member of the Senate Interior, Environment and Related Agencies subcommittee released their draft appropriations bill on August 1. The Senate draft largely maintains or even increases funding for many of the programs that were cut so significantly in the House. The Senate bill proposes $400 million for LWCF, $35 million for NAWCA, and $61 million for State Wildlife Grants. While overall agency operating budgets are proposed for cuts, those cuts are far less significant in the Senate draft than the House bill.

The vast differences in funding levels between the House and Senate Interior and Environment Appropriations bills are emblematic of the inability for the two chambers to develop workable solutions to funding of government conservation efforts. A stand-alone Interior Appropriations bill has not passed both chambers and been signed into law in a number of years. Instead, while each chamber has made progress on their individual bills, the Interior bill is often one that is rolled into omnibus funding legislation, or is one of the remaining bills left undone and the agencies and programs are ultimately funded only through continuing resolution. Given how far apart the chambers are at a relatively late time in the congressional schedule it is unlikely that the FY 2014 bill will break that trend. (jas)