Gerlach legislation aims to protect and preserve nation’s farmland Bill would aid the many 6th District communities by allocating additional federal dollars for farmland preservation efforts
Washington,
Apr 7, 2005 -
Hoping to bolster open space preservation efforts already underway in communities throughout southeastern Pennsylvania, Rep. Jim Gerlach today introduced H.R. 1514, the Farmland Protection Program Challenge Grant Act .
”Pennsylvania leads the nation in the number of acres preserved from development through the purchase of conservation easements. Monies for purchase of development rights can come from federal, state, county and local sources,” Rep. Gerlach said. “In Southeastern Pennsylvania, a number of municipalities have enacted their own farmland preservation initiatives using their taxing indebtedness powers to acquire monies for farmland preservation.
“In order to encourage more municipalities to preserve farmland through purchase of development rights, I have introduced this legislation which would reserve 15 percent of existing Farmland Protection Program funds for conservation efforts,” Rep. Gerlach continued. “This initiative would not authorize any new funding; it would simply allocate a portion of the existing federal farm land preservation funds to encourage municipalities to establish their own local farmland preservation initiatives. So for every dollar spent by the local, state, and county authorities to preserve farm land, the federal government, under my legislation, would add another dollar.”
H.R. 1514 is the latest in a series of bills introduced by Rep. Gerlach since arriving in Congress that aim to protect the environment. For more information about this bill, and all of Rep. Gerlach’s legislation, visit his Web site at www.gerlach.house.gov.
