Title
A MOTION related to encouraging early and positive consideration by Congress of measures addressing the Land and Water Conservation Fund.
Body
WHEREAS, open space and recreation lands and facilities are highly valued by residents of King County, for their contribution to the region's quality of life, to the economic vitality of King County and to the wildlife habitat and environmental resource values that are embraced by the region's residents, and
WHEREAS, open space and recreation needs are more critical now than ever before, as the region's cities continue to grow, and as the county's Comprehensive Plan emphasizes the retention of open space lands to help balance more compact development patterns, and
WHEREAS, the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund has been an important source of acquisition funding for open space and recreation facilities, both locally and nationally, and
WHEREAS, the original intent of the Congress in setting up the Land and Water Conservation Fund included the use of fee revenues derived from offshore oil and gas leases to be used for land acquisition for open space and recreation purposes, and
WHEREAS, those revenues were intended to be funded at specified levels, structured as a percentage of lease revenues from offshore oil and gas leases, on an established and continuing basis, and
WHEREAS, funding allocation in recent years has shown a pattern of funding the Land and Water Conservation Fund at substantially less than the amount generated by the oil and gas leasing fee revenue, and
WHEREAS, of that reduced funding, a substantially smaller proportion than originally intended has been directed to state and local governments for open space and recreation purposes, and
WHEREAS, the nation now faces perhaps its greatest environmental disaster in the uncontained oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico resulting from deepwater oil drilling operations ; and
WHEREAS, it is important now, in this time of heightened attention to the ...

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