December 28th, 2020
Last night, under pressure from both sides of the aisle and with unemployment benefits lapsing and a government shutdown looming, President Trump signed the huge, 5,000+ page omnibus bill/COVID relief bill into law. This bill was passed last week by both chambers of Congress, and we have been waiting on news that the President would sign it into law.
This funding bill extends to the end of the current fiscal year (until September 30, 2021), and increases funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System’s Operations and Maintenance by a sliver-- from $502.4 million to $503.853 million. While this figure is the highest amount that has ever been appropriated for O&M, it falls far short of the $600 million the Refuge System should be receiving if funding had been increased over the last decade to keep pace with inflation.
Even with this small O&M increase, we are still looking at a huge number of open and unfilled positions, complexing of refuges, and lack of funding to do basic maintenance on each wildlife refuge such as prescribed fire and tackling invasive species.
A number of U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service programs that benefit wildlife, habitat, or the NWRS also remained relatively unchanged, such as the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act, and the National Wildlife Refuge Fund.
One important funding piece that was not increased was for Refuge Law Enforcement. A priority for the National Wildlife Refuge Association for several years now, funding for federal wildlife officers did not receive the expected increase. With 250 uniformed officers across 850 million acres of land and water, there simply aren’t enough boots on the ground to ensure the safety of visitors and the protection of wildlife. With full law enforcement staffing estimated at 1,150 officers, the Refuge System’s 5-year goal is to reach 400 officers. The lack of additional funding in this bill will not get them to that goal.
Another disappointing funding piece included in this bill was additional border wall funding. Already, the Cabeza Prieta NWR (New Mexico) and Lower Rio Grande NWR (south Texas) have suffered extensive damage, from massive habitat destruction to emptying of underground aquifers. Additional funding simply means the work will continue, potentially even into the next Administration. In this bill, Santa Ana NWR remains the only national wildlife refuge excluded from construction, while we had advocated for expanding the list to include the other four border refuges as well.
Another piece included in this legislation was S.3019, the Montana Water Rights Protection Act. This bill transfers the National Bison Range in Montana to the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes, to be held in trust by the United States for the benefit of the tribes. Given the fraught history of this particular refuge, the National Wildlife Refuge Association's position on the transfer or removal of lands at NBR has been to support with the caveat that other lands of equal ecological value should transfer into the Refuge System. This transfer of lands did not occur in this package, and we do not expect that to happen in the future.
We look forward to working with the 117th Congress and President-elect Biden and his Administration on increasing funding for the Refuge System overall in FY2022. The last decade of funding erosion has truly reduced the wildlife and ecological value of many refuge lands, an intolerable situation in the age of climate change and shifting ecosystems.