Land Trust Alliance Cheers U.S. House Passage of America Gives More Act of 2015

The Land Trust Alliance, a national land conservation organization working to save the places people need and love by strengthening land conservation across America, today applauded the U.S. House of Representatives vote to pass the America Gives More Act of 2015 (H.R. 644). The bill, which contained a key incentive for land conservation, passed 279-137, reflecting 67% support. The America Gives More Act includes the Conservation Easement Incentive Act (H.R. 641), a bill championed by Rep. Mike Kelly (R-PA) to make permanent a crucial tax incentive encouraging landowners to place conservation easements on their land to protect important agriculture, natural and scenic resources. The bill now moves to the U.S. Senate, where Sens. Dean Heller (R-NV) and Debbie Stabenow (D-MI) earlier this month introduced an identical version of the Conservation Easement Incentive Act (S. 330). The Obama administration supported making the easement incentive permanent in its fiscal year 2016 budget request and the incentive has had strong bipartisan support...more