Great American Outdoors Act Deserves Our Support

During a year rife with challenge, we the American people still have reasons for hope: bipartisan solidarity, economic growth, public lands and waters.

Our public lands form part of our national identity and a common legacy we hold together as a citizenry, irrespective of race, gender or the size of your paycheck. Although our opportunities to enjoy them may have been curtailed in recent months, they remain a source of solace and inspiration, comfort and refuge, solitude and adventure.

They also have the power to unite us, as shown by legislation currently advancing in both the Senate and the House of Representatives.

The Great American Outdoors Act is a broadly bipartisan bill that strategically invests in our shared lands and waters and in equal-opportunity access to places where we can recreate, recharge and rejuvenate. The bill would ensure full, dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), permanently securing the financial integrity of one of our most important conservation and access programs. (Since its establishment in 1964, LWCF has funded everything from municipal ballparks to river access sites.) The bill also would address long overdue maintenance backlogs on public lands and waters, dedicating unobligated energy revenues over a five-year period to lands managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Education. This is also a responsible bill that uses existing funding instead of taxpayer money.

Big picture, passage of the Great American Outdoors Act would fund countless shovel-ready projects all over the United States, such as repairing roads, trails, bridges and water structures, that would sustain important habitat, increase public access opportunities and get people back to work. This work would bolster America's robust $778 billion outdoor recreation economy, the source of jobs and a contributor to healthy communities throughout the nation. Countless reasons to support the bill exist, including its diverse appeal across the political spectrum.

Check out the full article from The Hill here.