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U.S. GOVERNMENT
INFORMATION .
GP
117TH CONGRESS REPORT
2d Session HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES 117-469
KEEP AMERICA'S REFUGES OPERATIONAL ACT OF 2022
SEPTEMBER 19, 2022.-Committed to the Committee of the Whole House on the
State of the Union and ordered to be printed
Mr. GRIJALVA, from the Committee on Natural Resources,
submitted the following
R E P O R T
[To accompany H.R. 6734]
[Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]
The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred the
bill (H.R. 6734) to amend the Fish and Wildlife Act of 1956 to reau-
thorize the volunteer services, community partnership, and refuge
education programs of the National Wildlife Refuge System, and
for other purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably
thereon without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.
PURPOSE OF THE BILL
The purpose of H.R. 6734 is to reauthorize the volunteer services,
community partnership, and refuge education programs of the Na-
tional Wildlife Refuge System.
BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION
The National Wildlife Refuge System (System), managed by the
Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), spreads across 568 National Wild-
life Refuges. The lands, waters, and wetlands protected under the
System cover nearly 837 million acres 1 and serve as the home for
over 700 bird species, 220 mammal species, 1,000 fish species, and
250 reptile and amphibian species.2
Volunteers in the System contribute over 20 percent of the work
needed to keep the refuges operational, and because of this work,
'U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERV., STATISTICAL DATA TABLES FOR FISH & WILDLIFE SERVICE
LANDS (AS OF 9/30/2021), tbl. 1 (2021), https://www.fws.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2021-an-
nual-report-of-lands-with-data-tables_2.pdf.
2Bill O'Brian, Refuge Animals From A to Z, U.S. FISH & WILDLIFE SERV., www.fws.gov/ref-
uges/features/Refuge-Animals-From-A-to-Z.htm (last visited Sept. 17, 2022).
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