U.S. Senator Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, today issued the following statement after the Government Accountability Office (GAO) released a new report on the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).

“This report provides good information about how federal land management agencies have implemented a variety of programs supported by LWCF appropriations,” Murkowski said. “Now that Congress has permanently authorized the deposit provisions of the LWCF, it is time to examine the program and the role it will have in shaping the future of our nation’s outdoor recreation system.”

The GAO report focuses on the federal-side of the LWCF and examines the programs supported by LWCF appropriations from 2014 through 2018, the process and methods agencies use to select acquisition projects, and the federal lands acquired with the Fund from Fiscal Years 2013 through 2017.

GAO recommends the Bureau of Land Management improve its data collection on land acquisitions so that there is reliable and complete information about the inventory and management of its lands.

Murkowski requested the report and its issuance comes on the heels of the passage of the 2019 lands package (the John D. Dingell, Jr. Conservation, Management, and Recreation Act). That bill made permanent the provisions in the LWCF to collect and deposit up to $900 million in specified revenues into the Fund each year and was paired with meaningful program reforms.

The GAO report is available here.

Murkowski is chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which plans to hold a full committee hearing on the LWCF on Tuesday, June 25, 2019.