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Wallop-Breaux Reauthorization
Update: Wallop-Breaux Reauthorized. After
nearly two years of Congressional action and three years of strategic
planning and consensus building by leading angling and boating organizations,
the most significant legislation for sportfishing and boating since
1984 was signed into law by President Bush on August 10, 2005.
The centerpiece of the legislation is the successful capture of the
federal fuel tax on motorboats and small engines which will now be
dedicated to sportfish restoration, angler and boating access and boating
safety. The Act will consolidate the receipts of the new Sport Fish
Restoration and Boating Trust Fund and distribute them according to
a simpler and more equitable formula supported by the American Sportfishing
Association and a coalition of 33 other fishing and boating organizations.
Formerly known as the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund, this reauthorization
will recover approximately $110 million per year of federal fuel taxes
currently being paid by anglers and boaters which was being diverted
to the general treasury. The capture of the fuel tax will significantly
boost funding revenues for the Fund to approximately $570 million per
year for important angling and boating programs such as fisheries monitoring;
habitat conservation and restoration; fishing and boating access facilities
such as docks, piers, and boat ramps; and education and safety programs
for anglers and boaters. State wildlife and natural resources agencies,
which receive the funds, will see an annual increase anywhere from
$1.1 to $5.5 million dollars for conservation management. Funds are
appropriated to the states for sportfish restoration and boating programs
based on license sales and water area.
The Fund amounts to about $570 million per year which is ultimately
parceled to state fish and wildlife agencies as a primary source of
their overall funding. For more than 10 years, only a portion of anglers
and boaters’ federal motor boat fuel taxes were directed to the
Aquatic Resources Trust Fund, a user-pay/user and resource benefit
fund that provides revenues for fishing and boating programs across
the nation. The reauthorization captures the entire amount of the fuel
tax. In addition, the Congressional action also distributes approximately
$87 million of previously unappropriated revenues to various accounts
within the Sport Fish Restoration and Boating Trust Fund.
Previously, of the 18.3 cents in federal fuel taxes, only 13.5 cents
of the tax on every gallon of gasoline used in recreational boating
and small engines was transferred from the Highway Transportation Fund
to the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund. Under this arrangement, the 4.8
cent balance on every gallon was being directed to the General Treasury.
This meant that anglers and boaters paying this tax were not receiving
the full benefit of their tax payment investment.
Background: The Aquatic Resources Trust Fund (ARTF) encompasses two
of the nation’s most effective “user-pay, user-benefit” programs
in the Sport Fish Restoration Program and the Recreational Boating
Safety Program. The Sport Fish Restoration Program was established
in 1950 by the Dingell-Johnson Act, using a 10 percent excise tax on
some fishing equipment to fund various projects designed to enhance
sportfishing in all 50 states.
The Recreational Boating Safety Program was established in 1971 and
amended in 1980 to draw its funding from taxes on motorboat fuels.
These programs were combined in 1984 under the ARTF, also known as
the Wallop-Breaux Trust Fund. The Wallop-Breaux amendment to the Sport
Fish Restoration Act expanded the excise tax to nearly all sportfishing
products and captured all of the federal motorboat fuel taxes that
were paid by boaters and anglers. This combination, along with the
Coastal Wetlands Restoration Act of 1990, has substantially increased
the funds collected by the federal government to be returned to the
states for fishing and boating-related projects.
Since its creation, the Sport Fish Restoration Act has been refined
and expanded by Congress. It is unquestionably the most valuable federal
legislation for anglers and fishery resources, delivering (at the time
of reauthorization) approximately $460 million each year to state fishing
and boating programs.
In 2005, the opportunity existed to maintain this important funding
source as Congress reauthorized the transfer of motorboat and small
engine fuel taxes to the Aquatic Resources Trust Fund.
The Issue: The American League of Anglers and Boaters (ALAB), an advisory
group that met in anticipation of the Wallop-Breaux reauthorization,
compiled a set of consensus recommendations regarding the act. The
main points of the ALAB consensus, which were adopted into law, were:
- Captures all of the federal fuel tax attributable
to motorboats and small engines: For years boats and anglers have been paying
the full federal fuel tax (18.3 cents) but only 13.5 cents of the
tax was being attributed to the trust fund for motorboat and small
engine use. Now anglers and boaters will recover the full amount
used in boats and small engines.
- Reauthorize the Marine Sanitary Devices pump-out
program, Boating Infrastructure Grant Program and Outreach programs: These programs
would expire under the previous ARTF. The outreach programs included
the Recreational Boating and Fishing Foundation. Each program will
receive 2 percent of the trust fund value.
- Ensure guaranteed funding for the Boating
Safety Grants: This program
will now receive 18.5 percent of the total ARTF, increasing 2005
funding from $64 million to at least $100 million in FY 2006.
- Dissolve (spend down) the Boat Safety Account: The balance previously
in the account plus the interest (approximately $87 million) will
be distributed over the next five years to accounts in the fund.
- Fund most programs by a percentage: All programs, except administration
and multi-state grants which remain a fixed amount, are now assigned
a percentage to allow a simpler and fairer process. When the amount
of funds increase or decrease, so will the programs based upon their
percentage. Percentages are as follows:
|
Sport Fish Restoration
(includes 15 percent for boating access)
Boating Safety Grants
Coastal Wetlands Act
Boating Infrastructure
Outreach (RBFF)
Clean Vessel Act
|
57 percent
18.5 percent
18.5 percent
2.0 percent
2.0 percent
2.0 percent
|
|
ASA’s Statement: “We are truly grateful for Senator Trent Lott (R-MS) and Senator Herb Kohl's (D-WI) efforts in sponsoring this legislation and the sportfishing community thanks them for moving it through the Senate reauthorization process,” said Gordon Robertson, vice
president of ASA. “On the House side, we owe Representatives
Don Young (R-AK) and Clay Shaw (R-FL) our thanks for their leadership
in this effort.” Robertson added, “We also want to thank
the six committees of jurisdiction and their staff for standing with
us during this two-year reauthorization process. Passage of this legislation
is testament to the ability of the sportfishing and boating community
to work together to strengthen the user-pay/user-benefit concept of
the U.S. conservation model.” In addition, Robertson said, “It
has truly been a coordinated bipartisan, bicameral effort that is a
testament to this nation’s love of sportfishing and boating.”
ASA thanks it members, partners and supporters
who wrote or called their Members of Congress to let them know how
important this issue was to the angling and boating community. The
additional $110 million will be a great benefit to recreational fishing
as this money becomes available to the states for angling and boating
programs.
