On Tuesday, the U.S. House of Representatives voted to authorize a sweeping land protection package that would protect over two million acres of land across the country. The nearly 700-page package includes legislation that touches nearly every state, expanding wilderness areas from New Hampshire to Alaska, carving out new protections for rivers and state forests, and permanently protecting several vast tracts of land from future mining.

The bill also includes a crucial guarantee: that the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses revenues from offshore oil and gas drilling to pay for land and conservation efforts countrywide, will be permanently authorized. Authorization for the fund, which has been in existence since 1965, lapsed in September of 2018, jeopardizing