Sherwood Boehlert: “CARA is landmark legislation, moderate legislation, sensible legislation that responds to a clear and growing public…”

“CARA is landmark legislation, moderate legislation, sensible legislation that responds to a clear and growing public demand; namely, that we do more to conserve open space and protect our ecological resources. That public demand is evidenced by the hundreds of successful State and local referenda that have set aside funds for these purposes. And that public demand is evidenced in every poll, and the demand shows up in every region, every age group, every flavor of partisanship and ideology. The Federal Government has an essential role to play in this area, because it can set national priorities and distribute funds that are beyond the States' capacity to raise. And this bill takes on that legitimate Federal role in the right way by plowing back some, not all, but some of those revenues that the Federal Government gains from exploiting our national resources into preserving our national resources. That is not a new idea. It has been part of the idea behind the Land and Water Conservation Fund for decades, but CARA expands on that idea at this critical time when social and economic changes have caused more of our land to be under threat than ever before. CARA is the right bill at the right time.”