Administration Looks to Divert Money From Conservation Fund

The Washington Post reports that the administration is drafting an Executive Order divert money from the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)—money that was approved by Congress for acquiring new land for national parks and wildlife refuges.

See our tracker entry: Defunding Land and Water Conservation Fund.

The LWCF was established by Congress to use the revenue from oil and gas royalties—not taxpayer money—to acquire high-priority conservation land. The Great American Outdoors Act—signed by Trump himself in 2020—permanently funds the LWCF at $900 million / year.

However, Trump wants to divert that money to pay for long-overdue park repairs. But paying for park repairs should come from the annual federal budget. In fact the Great American Outdoors Act explicitly forbids using the money for this purpose.

The 3-Pronged Attack on Public Land Acquisition: 

This is all part of a 3-pronged attack the adminstration is waging on the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

In a parallel approach, the administration is trying to divert LWCF money via Congress. Trump submitted a budget request to Congress to divert $253 million from the LWCF for park repairs. So far, Congress has rejected Trump's funding cuts in its spending bills.

Lastly, The Washington Post article outlines a 3rd approach—willful neglect. The Department of the Interior has not sent Congress a list of proposed purchases for 2026. In other words, the administration is choosing to ignore its duties in spending LWCF money.