Reflections on the 117th Congress

In the first year of the two-year cycle, Congress passed the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (aka the Investment in Infrastructure and Jobs Act and BIL), which earmarked over $21 billion for national forest and watershed restoration, western wildfire prevention and wildlife infrastructure support, such as installing fish-friendly passages under roads and wildlife crossings over major highways within biggame migration corridors. And for the first time, the legislation formally included natural infrastructure as critical infrastructure.

In 2022, Congress passed along straight party lines the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (IRA). Though controversial, it added $33 billion in conservation-related funding for private and public lands, mostly supporting popular farm bill conservation and forestry programs, including the Agricultural Conservation Easement Program, Conservation Stewardship Program and the Environmental Quality Incentives Program. These programs provide farmers and families with working forests and agricultural lands incentives to improve wildlife habitat on non-arable or marginal/ erodible acres. Also, it bolstered federal land management agency budgets exponentially.

In April of 2022, MAPLand (Modernizing Access to Our Public Lands Act) was enacted, charging federal land management agencies to work together to develop a comprehensive and updated digital mapping system of all federal lands and access points and a notification system to alert users of closures. This new system will be compatible with common GPS technology, including smartphone GPS mapping applications, and will help ease access for hunters and other public land users.

The REPLANT Act also passed as part of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and provides funding to support tree seed stock and nursery development and other resources. This Act also provided direction on reforesting national forests following major disturbances, such as wildfire, natural disasters and management activities. Timely and strategic reforestation reduces soil erosion and run off into streams, protecting fish and water quality.

The Conservation Easement Integrity Act passed as part of the end-of-year omnibus spending package. The new law closes a loophole that allowed the misuse of conservation easement programs for tax evasion purposes.

While natural resources received a congressional boost, the last Congress was not without its challenges.

The NWTF publicly opposed the Assault Weapons Ban of 2022 (H.R. 1808) and reached out to congressional leadership to voice our concerns. The firearms targeted for the ban would impede hunters as well as put a major strain on the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson Act) funding.

The NWTF opposed H.R. 8167 that would rescind the federal excise taxes on firearms, ammunition and archery gear that fund the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act and state conservation and R3 efforts. The NWTF and our members engaged in a campaign with our sporting conservation organization partners and the firearms and ammunition industry to educate legislative staffers on the importance of the excise tax to wildlife conservation efforts.

After a tremendous, multi-year effort, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act came very close to passing but negotiations for a funding source fell apart at the last minute. We hope it will be reintroduced and moves quickly in the 118th Congress. This landmark bill would amend the Pittman-Robertson Act to direct a guaranteed appropriation of nearly $1.4 billion for states and tribes to recover vulnerable species. RAWA supplements current Pittman- Robertson funding and does not replace it, allowing the dollars derived through excise taxes on firearms, ammunition and archery equipment to remain focused on game species conservation, hunter recruitment and access, as well as shooting range development. In 2021, these taxes generated $1.1 billion for state conservation efforts, maintaining the status of the shooting and hunting industry and community as America’s conservation heroes.

For years, the NWTF and our partners have worked diligently with members of Congress on a law that would make it harder for anti-forest-management groups to misuse the Endangered Species Act, the National Environmental Protection Act, the Equal Access to Justice Act and the federal court system to keep important forest and grasslands work from occurring on federal lands. Unfortunately, S-2561, introduced by Sen. Steve Daines (R-MT), didn’t make it into law during the 117th Congress. We will work during the 118th to ensure an important legislative fix is passed to put this issue to rest.

The NWTF has already been deeply engaged in 2023 Farm Bill planning since the beginning of 2022. The 2018 Farm Bill will expire at the end of September 2023. The farm bill is extremely important to our mission on private and public lands. The NWTF is a steering committee member of the Forest in the Farm Bill Coalition and participates in several other farm bill working groups to ensure our priorities are echoed by the general conservation community.