Democratic Members of the House Natural Resources Committee boycotted part of the Committee’s markup of a series of public lands bills because committee Chair Rob Bishop (R-UT) chose to leave a bill out of the markup schedule regarding the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF).
Ranking Member Raul Grijalva (D-AZ) has introduced a bill (HR 1814) to permanently reauthorize the LWCF. The bipartisan bill has 181 cosponsors, including two dozen Republicans. Ranking Member Grijalva has asked Chairman Bishop three times to bring the bill to a markup, and he has refused. Committee Democrats boycotted part of the hearing because the Ranking Member’s bill was not considered, as well as the fact that Chairman Bishop recently sent a letter to the Departments of the Interior and Agriculture asking for a detailed list of all projects this program has funded in its 50 year history. Chairman Bishop has indicated that he plans to introduce his own legislation to reform and reauthorize the program but has yet to do so.