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The National Wildlife Refuge Association listens to the growing concerns of refuges about how chronic underfunding is affecting their refuge, complex, and region. Due to this underfunding, staff positions are being cut, law enforcement is expected to cover thousands of acres (and in the worst-case scenario, a full state), refuges are being complexed, and important programs are being dropped.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association is requesting Refuge Friends’ testimony on behalf of National Wildlife Refuge System funding levels for the Fiscal Year 2023— this time for the Senate! Many of you already submitted testimony for the House back in March, but even if you didn’t you can still submit testimony to the Senate!
The National Wildlife Refuge System encompasses more than 850 million acres of land and waters across America’s 568 National Wildlife Refuges, including 5 Marine National Monuments. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (USFWS) is responsible for managing these lands and is expected to fulfill its obligation to the Refuge System’s 64 million annual visitors and diverse wildlife on a budget of a mere 61¢ per acre per year, a fraction of what other land agencies receive. For comparison, the National Park Service receives $31 per acre for land management.
The National Wildlife Refuge Association strongly supports increased funding for the National Wildlife Refuge System, the largest system of public lands set aside for wildlife in the world. Covering 95 million acres of land and 750 million acres of ocean, the Refuge System is currently funded at just under 60¢ per acre per year. Year after year, the Refuge System remains underfunded, with little traction in Congress to increase funding for habitat that serves not just wildlife species, but people as well.
I truly appreciate all the Friends and Friends Groups who submitted testimony to the House and Senate last spring. We are *still* waiting to see the results of that push for increased funding since Congress has still not passed an FY2022 appropriations bill. The House of Representatives, however, is beginning their Fiscal Year 2023 push without any final FY2022 numbers and without the release of the President’s Budget Request (which we are expecting any day).
On January 20, 2021, the United States of America swore in its new President, Joseph R. Biden, Jr, and its new Vice President, Kamala D. Harris. Along with the new Biden Administration, Vice President Harris also swore in three new Democratic Senators, flipping the upper chamber to Democratic control. Margins in both the House of Representatives and the Senate are razor-thin, meaning almost any legislation will require bipartisan support to pass.
