New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu is praising the Biden administration for rescinding a Trump-era directive that slashed state funding from a key federal conservation program.
On Thursday, Acting Interior Secretary Scott de la Vega revoked an order issued by former President Donald Trump, just days before he left office last month, that had stripped funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The reversal follows appeals by Sununu and other state leaders who had funding requests nullified by the directive.
Sununu welcomed the move, which he said would have “significantly hindered New Hampshire’s ability to meet the outdoor recreation needs of our citizens and visitors.”
“Yet again, New Hampshire was able to break past overreach from Washington D.C. and help to tear down burdensome regulations for the benefit of our citizens,” he said in a statement.
Interior Department Deputy Secretary Shannon Estenoz said the move affirms the Biden administration’s support for “one of America’s most successful and popular conservation programs.”
“The Land and Water Conservation Fund has been crucial to protecting public lands, conserving wildlife habitats and improving access to outdoor recreation,” she said in a statement. “We look forward to further strengthening this successful program to ensure that all communities – from hikers and sportsmen to urban and underserved communities – have access to nature and the great outdoors.”
Sununu, a Trump supporter who backed many of his policies, recently wrote to Estenoz saying the order put in place by the previous administration would “nullify” all the state’s pending funding requests to the National Park Service, which had been earmarked under a five-year program.
Since its creation in 1965, the fund has provided $40 million in grants for hundreds of New Hampshire’s state parks, heritage sites and other preservation projects
In 2019, the Trump administration gutted funding for the LWCF in the Department of the Interior budget, but lawmakers blocked the move and pumped $495 million into the program last year.
Last August, Congress approved the Great American Outdoors Act which permanently earmarks money for the federal Land and Water Conservation Fund, but funding is allocated annually as part of the federal budget.
