{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://web.archive.org/web/20140822043928/http://shea-porter.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/shea-porter-announces-67963-grant-to-the-city-of-laconia", "Shea-Porter Announces $67,963 Grant to the City of Laconia", "2014-08-15", "2014", "2014-08", "Democrat", "House", "NH", "Carol Shea-Porter", "S001170", "web.archive.org", null, null, "legacy", "FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE  \n\tContact: Naomi Andrews, 202-225-5456 \u00a0\nLACONIA, NH \u2014\u00a0Congresswoman Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01) is pleased to announce that the City of Laconia will receive a matching $67,963 Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) grant for the Weirs Community Park Playground. This facility will include playground, picnic, and pavilion areas, along with an amphitheater, bathhouse facilities, walkways, and parking.\nShea-Porter said, \u201cMatching funds provided by the LWCF have supported countless state park and recreation projects in thousands of communities in every state in the nation, including right here in New Hampshire. I am proud to support funding that helps communities such as Laconia.\u201d \u00a0\nOn March 31, 2014 Shea-Porter signed onto a bipartisan letter to the Interior and Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, urging the Subcommittee to provide robust funding for the LWCF in fiscal year (FY) 2015. \u00a0Shea-Porter said, \u201cInvestments in LWCF support public land conservation and ensure access to the outdoors for all Americans, in rural communities and cities alike.\u201d \u00a0\nThe LWCF has helped to ensure the permanent protection, recreational access, and maintenance of critical lands in our national forests, recreation areas, parks, wildlife refuges, Civil War battlefields, and historic sites. No taxpayer dollars are used for LWCF funds, with the money primarily derived from federal oil and gas receipts paid by energy companies that extract publicly-owned resources from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS).\nBackground:\u00a0\nThe full text of the letter follows:\nMarch 32, 2014\u00a0\nThe Honorable Ken Calvert \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0The Honorable James P. Moran  \n\tChairman \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Ranking Member  \n\tSubcommittee on Interior, \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Subcommittee on Interior,  \n\tEnvironment and Related Agencies \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Environment, and Related Agencies  \n\tCommittee on Appropriations \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Committee on Appropriations  \n\tU.S. House of Representatives \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 U.S. House of Representatives  \n\tWashington, D.C. 20515 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0Washington, D.C. 20515\nDear Chairman Calvert and Ranking Member Moran,\nFifty years ago this September, the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) Act of 1964 established America\u2019s most successful conservation program. The bill was designed to assure our growing population that outdoor recreation lands would be secured, on a pay-as-you-go basis, for future Americans\u2019 requirements. \u00a0As we mark this anniversary, we are writing to express our strong support for LWCF and urge you to allocate robust funding to this valuable, time-tested program for the next generation in the Fiscal Year (FY) 2015 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations bill.\nInvestments in LWCF support public land conservation and ensure access to the outdoors for all Americans, in rural communities and cities alike. It has created outdoor recreation opportunities in every state and 98 percent of counties across the country, opening up key areas for hunting, fishing, and other recreational access; supporting working forests and ranches; and acquiring inholdings and protecting critical lands in national parks, national wildlife refuges, national forests, Civil War battlefields, and other federal areas. The State and Local Grants Program provides crucial support for state and local park acquisitions in cities, counties, and rural towns as well as recreational facilities and trail corridors. \u00a0It is the government's primary investment tool for ensuring that children and families have access to close-to-home recreation, having funded over 41,000 projects including sports fields, outdoor recreation facilities, and trails. The Cooperative Endangered Species grants program provides states and counties with essential resources for habitat conservation that in turn allows for appropriate economic development. \u00a0And the Forest Legacy Program helps maintain critical jobs in the woods while protecting outdoor resources, recreation access, and local economies.\nAs you know, LWCF uses no taxpayer dollars. Instead, LWCF funds are primarily derived from oil and gas receipts paid to the federal government by energy companies that extract publicly-owned resources from the Outer Continental Shelf (OCS). Congress created LWCF as a bipartisan promise to return precious resources back to the American public by using these funds specifically for conservation and recreation purposes. In addition, the Ryan-Murray Budget included a deficit neutral reserve fund supporting full funding of LWCF in FY 14. \u00a0Unfortunately, over the 50-year history of LWCF, over $18 billion of these funds have been diverted from their original conservation purpose. \u00a0This chronic problem has created a substantial backlog of conservation and recreation needs; has caused state, local, and federal land management agencies to postpone or cancel many important projects; and has created undue hardship for many property owners.\nDespite this history of underfunding, LWCF remains the premier federal program to conserve our nation's land, water, historic, and recreation heritage. LWCF funds support an entire suite of conservation tools to address national, state, local, and regionally-driven priorities across the country. \u00a0These include working lands easements that keep farmers and ranchers as stewards of the landscape that provides their livelihoods, working forest projects that keep timberlands forested and accessible and provide jobs in our rural communities, and vital recreation access projects \u2013 making public lands public \u2013 for hunting, fishing, and other activities.\nAs our nation continues down the path towards economic recovery, LWCF should be adequately funded to ensure that it plays the strongest possible role in revitalizing local communities. America's outdoor recreation, conservation, and preservation economies contribute $1.06 trillion to the nation's economy each year and support 9.4 million American jobs (1 out of every 15 jobs in the U.S.). \u00a0Support for public lands among the American public remains consistently and overwhelmingly strong.\nWe look forward to working with the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies in the coming months to ensure that the suite of LWCF programs receive strong support in FY 2015 so that the federal government can maintain its commitment to conservation and recreation. \u00a0As Americans continue to visit forests, parks, historic battlefields, and wildlife areas across America, we urge you to provide the funding levels necessary to ensure these opportunities exist everywhere in our great Nation.\nThank you for your consideration of our request.\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://web.archive.org/web/20140822043928/http://shea-porter.house.gov/media-center/press-releases/shea-porter-announces-67963-grant-to-the-city-of-laconia"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 2.103029051795602, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}