Sweeping conservation bill passes Senate, will likely pass House - Entrepreneur Generations

"The Senate on Tuesday passed the most sweeping conservation legislation in a decade, protecting millions of acres of land and hundreds of miles of wild rivers across the country and establishing four new national monuments honoring heroes including Civil War soldiers and a civil rights icon," Juliet Eilperin and Dino Grandoni report for The Washington Post.

The measure enjoyed broad bipartisan support, passing 92 to 8, and will likely pass in the House after the mid-February recess. That could be partly because, as Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) pointed out, "It touches every state, features the input of a wide coalition of our colleagues, and has earned the support of a broad, diverse coalition of many advocates for public lands, economic development and conservation."

The Congressional Budget Office projects that the bill would save taxpayers $9 million, designates 1.3 million acres as wilderness, bans mining on more than 370,00 acres around Yellowstone National Park in Montana and Methow Headwaters in Washington, and permanently allows off-shore drilling revenue to be spent on conservation, the Post reports.

The bill creates five new national monuments: St. Francis Dam Disaster in California, Jurassic in Utah, Medgar Evers Home in Mississippi, and Mill Springs Battlefield and Camp Nelson, both in Kentucky. Five existing national parks have been significantly expanded: Death Valley and Joshua Tree in California, and Kennesaw Mountain National Battlefield, Ocmulgee Mounds, and Fort Frederica in Georgia, the Post reports.

"The bill reauthorizes and funds the Neotropical Migratory Bird Conservation Act through 2022, which provides habitat protection for more than 380 bird species, and codifies a signature program of President Barack Obama’s. That program, the Every Kid Outdoors Act, allows U.S. fourth-graders and their families to visit national parks free," the Post reports.

from The Rural Blog http://bit.ly/2S3ojwd Sweeping conservation bill passes Senate, will likely pass House - Entrepreneur Generations

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