December 2009 - Parks & Recreation - 24

advocacy update continued from page 21

James McGovern (D-MA), a manager's
amendment was accepted providing an
additional $10 million to LWCF Stateside,
bringing the total funding to $40 million
on the House bill. The Senate version of
the bill passed in September and provided $35 million for LWCF Stateside.
As the bill went to Conference to resolve the differences between the House
and Senate versions, early indications
were that the lower funding amount
would prevail. However, the NRPA advocacy network was relentless in its pursuit
of the higher funding level and our advocacy efforts have paid dividends as the
program has been funded at $40 million
for FY 2010. The LWCF Stateside program
funds matching grants to assist states and
localities in recreational planning, acquiring recreational lands and waters, and
developing outdoor recreation facilities.
The funds for FY2010 will be available to
governors early next year.
In addition to FY 2010 appropriations
funding, $6-8 million will be provided
through the Gulf of Mexico Energy Security Act (GOMESA) of 2006, which
means between $46 and $48 million in
total funding for the LWCF Stateside program for FY2010. NRPA previously advocated for the inclusion of LWCF Stateside
in GOMESA.

Community Prevention Funding
NRPA advocated for the inclusion of funding within the American Recovery and
Reinvestment Act (ARRA) for prevention
and wellness programs with our specific

advocacy efforts focusing on funding for
the Centers For Disease Control and Prevention's (CDC's) ACHIEVE Healthy Communities Program. The ARRA provided
$650 million for prevention and wellness,
but did not specify how the funding would
be allocated. In September, the Department of Health and Human Services and
CDC announced the availability of $373
million of the ARRA funds for a program
called Communities Putting Prevention
to Work. This program will award competitive grant funds for local communities
to adopt and implement evidence-based
policies and programs to improve nutrition, increase physical activity, decrease
overweight and obesity, and decrease tobacco use. This is a new funding opportunity, but has many components that are
similar or mirror the ACHIEVE Healthy
Communities program.
The CDC plans to award 30-40 twoyear grants, focusing on communities at
highest risk and where the policies and
programs will likely have the greatest
impact.

Defeat of Amendment to Eliminate
LWCF Stateside Funding
During consideration of the Interior Appropriations bill by the House of Representatives, Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT)
offered an amendment that would have
zeroed out all FY 2010 funding for LWCF
Stateside. NRPA launched a strong advocacy campaign against this amendment,
which was ultimately withdrawn by Rep.
Chaffetz.

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22 Parks & Recreation

DECEMBER 2009

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Defeat of Amendment to Eliminate
Funding for Bike and Pedestrian Trails
As the Senate moved towards passage of
the FY 2010 Transportation, Housing and
Urban Development Appropriations bill,
Senators Tom Coburn (R-OK) and John
McCain (R-AZ) submitted two amendments, that if passed, would have eliminated the Transportation Enhancements
(TE) program, which provides the majority of federal funds for biking and pedestrian trails. Joint advocacy efforts by
NRPA and coalition partners led to the
withdrawal of one amendment and the
defeat of the second, thereby saving TE
funding.

Introduction of Bill to Provide Full and
Dedicated Funding for LWCF
The Consolidated Land, Energy and
Aquatic Resources (CLEAR) Act (H.R.
3534) was introduced in the fall of 2009,
and contains a provision to provide full and
dedicated funding for LWCF while also extending the expiration of LWCF from September 30, 2015, to September 30, 2040.
The legislation stipulates that $900
million of dedicated funding will be provided to LWCF on an annual basis, which
means LWCF funding will not be subject
to the annual appropriations cycle or partisan politics that impact the annual funding level for the program. The bill also
specifies that of the $900 million, 50 percent of that amount shall be used for the
Stateside program and 50 percent shall
be used for the federal portion of LWCF.
This House Natural Resources committee has jurisdiction over this bill and
will need to vote on it before the bill can
move to a vote by the full House of Representatives. Currently, the committee
has not scheduled a vote on the bill.
Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate. On Friday, Nov. 6,
Sen. Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) and Max
Baucus (D-MT) introduced the Land and
Water Conservation Authorization and
Funding Act of 2009 (S. 2747) that would
also permanently provide $900 million to
the Land and Water Conservation Fund
(LWCF). One notable difference between the House and Senate bills is that
the Senate bill is a stand-alone piece of

December 2009 - Parks & Recreation

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