The House Natural Resources Committee will continue to promote migratory bird habitat conservation this week as the committee votes on a bill to reauthorize the Neotropical Migratory Bird Act on Wednesday.
The Neotropical Migratory Bird Act has been beneficial to waterfowl and other bird habitat conservation efforts across North America, conserving more than 1.9 million acres of habitat in the United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean. Much like the North American Wetlands Conservation Act, the Neotropical Migratory Bird Act requires private and other non-federal funds to match the grants for the federal government. To date, federal grants of more than $25.5 million have leveraged more than $122 million in other funds.
The bill before the committee (H.R. 2213) would reauthorize the program through 2015 and increase the authorized funding for projects.