Kelly Ayotte: “I come to the floor to urge my colleagues to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This has been…”

“I come to the floor to urge my colleagues to permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This has been a very important program for preserving our outdoor spaces and the beauty of our country. It is particularly important to my home State of New Hampshire, where this fund actually comes from leasing revenues from oil and gas, and so these are dollars that are supposed to be designated for this purpose since the law was passed in 1965. I am very disappointed that this body has allowed the LWCS authorization to expire. We have a bipartisan bill, which is cosponsored by Senator Burr, Senator Bennet, and myself--the Burr-Bennet-Ayotte bill, which is one that I will seek unanimous consent on in a moment. It has a number of cosponsors. This is a very bipartisan bill. Senator Tester, Senator Shaheen, Senator Alexander, Senator Collins, and Senator King have also cosponsored this bill. This bill would permanently reauthorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund. We know from a previous vote in the Senate, we have 60 votes for permanent reauthorization. People on both sides of the aisle feel very strongly about preserving our great outdoors in this country. In New Hampshire, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has been used on 650 projects, from every aspect of our State--from Sunapee to Ossipee, to Berlin, to Seabrook, to my home city of Nashua, and the Mine Falls Park that I run in every day whenever I am home.…”