Bills
| 3.23.22

Reauthorizing Funding for the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation (S. 51)

Do you support or oppose this bill?

What is S. 51?

(Updated July 18, 2017)

This bill would reauthorize and revise the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation Establishment Act. The Foundation is a nonprofit that offers grants related to various conservation activities. This bill is part of the minibus Bipartisan Sportsmen's Act, a group of twelve bills related to hunting, fishing, and conservation. Details about this act can be found below. 

Argument in favor

One of two steps toward funding a critical conservation nonprofit essential to maintaining everything from whales from wild prairie grass.

Argument opposed

The loss of the whale conservation fund means bad things for our big, aquatic friends living beyond the confines of Sea World.

Impact

The bill impacts funding for the thirty-year old NFWF, which has, since its inception, awarded 11,600 grants and turned $576 million in taxpayer funds into $2 billion in conservation efforts.

Cost of S. 51

In regard to Senate companion legislation, the CBO estimates that enacting the bill would cost $137 million over the 2014-2019 period.

Additional Info

Media: 




In Detail:

According to the official bill summary, the Act would

-Require the Secretary of the Interior to appoint five additional directors to the Foundation, raising the total from 23 to 28; 

-Removes certain limitations on the appointment of the Foundation's officers and employees, including a six-year term limit for directors; 

-Requires the Foundation's Executive Director to be appointed by and serve at the direction of the Board as its CEO, and "to be knowledgeable and experienced in matters relating to fish and wildlife conservation";

-Gives the Foundation the power to receive and administer payments, as long as those payments in turn further conservation and wildlife management; 

-Repeals provisions authorizing the Foundation to establish a national whale conservation endowment fund;

-Authorizes appropriations for the Foundation for the next five fiscal years, and;

-Authorizes the Foundation to: (1) assess and collect fees for the management of amounts received from federal agencies; and (2) use such federal funds for matching contributions made by private persons, state and local agencies, and other entities (current law requires such use).