The House of Representatives is busy this week promoting good conservation legislation! We wanted to update everyone on what’s happening this week:

National Defense Authorization Act is being debated on the House floor today. Included in that bill is the Desert National Wildlife Refuge bill, which has taken a wild ride over the last two weeks. In committee, an amendment was passed that transferred half the refuge to the Air Force, with no input from the Nevada delegation or any conservation NGOs. We were forced to try to get a floor vote to fix this, which we did! The Nevada delegation has gotten language into the "en bloc" amendment on the floor, which has been agreed to by Republicans and Democrats. This amendment will be adopted into the final bill and the current jurisdictional boundaries will not be changed.
The Great American Outdoors Act is on the House floor on Wednesday. This bill includes the full and dedicated funding of the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million per year, PLUS funding up to $95 million a year for the Refuge System for maintenance backlog funding. Meaning, there will be additional funding for land acquisition and deferred maintenance for refuges!
The House Interior Appropriations Bill is on the floor at the end of the week. This bill includes a small increase for Refuge Operations and Maintenance ($8 million) and language that restricts lease sales on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.

So it’s going to be a wild week on Capitol Hill, with lots of legislation getting passed.

Drop any questions in the comments!