Background

Each year, federal land management agencies receive funding from Congress through an Interior Appropriations bill. Our perennial challenge is to ensure that agencies receive adequate funding to manage the lands they administer, that funding is prioritized for resource protection, as opposed to harmful resource extraction, and that unrelated "riders" are not added to this legislation.

The Interior Appropriations bill provides funding for the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, Fish & Wildlife Service, and Bureau of Land Management.

In addition, appropriations bills face a constant threat of "riders" being added as amendments -- legislative language not related to the original intent of the bill. Riders, which generally would not survive as stand-alone legislation, often are added to "must-pass" bills.