Niki Tsongas: “I would like to thank Ranking Member Grijalva for his leadership and advocacy on behalf of the Land and Water…”

“I would like to thank Ranking Member Grijalva for his leadership and advocacy on behalf of the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We have a generational responsibility to protect our Nation's remaining natural and historic resources for our children and our grandchildren. The Land and Water Conservation Fund has been an instrumental tool, an invaluable tool in this effort. For over 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has carried out a simple, bipartisan idea: use revenues from the depletion of one Federal resource--offshore oil and gas--to conserve another--our land and water--and provide recreation opportunities for all Americans. It does not cost taxpayer money or contribute to the Federal deficit, relying instead on royalties paid by oil and gas companies in exchange for their right to develop offshore resources in waters that belong to all of the American people. LWCF has also proven to be a critical tool to protect some of our Nation's most significant cultural and historic sites, protecting places that have shaped and defined who we are as a people and a country and would not have been protected without support from the Federal Government.…”