Abigail Beckman discusses the Recovering America's Wildlife Act with Bruce Stein, chief scientist at the National Wildlife Federation.

Legislation before the U.S. House Committee on Natural Resources Thursday would provide Colorado with a $27 million boost for state wildlife agencies to help protect wildlife.

Nationwide, the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act would provide $1.3 billion for wildlife management strategies and habitat restoration. Bruce Stein is the Chief Scientist with the National Wildlife Federation. He says the hearing is the first step in moving the act forward in Congress.

“Even though there are a lot of efforts in the current administration to roll back some of our core environmental safeguards, we think that we have to step up our proactive conservation efforts,” Stein said.

Stein said there’s a growing need for conservation, and referenced a recent study that found the bird population in the U.S. and Canada has fallen by nearly 30 percent over the past 48 years. He calls the Recovering America’s Wildlife Act a “unicorn” in Washington because of its wide bipartisan support.