The Great American Outdoors Act is advancing in Congress despite the nation dealing with an economic crisis brought on by the COVID virus and social unrest. The Great American Outdoors Act, which would provide $900 million annually for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $9.5 billion over the next five years in national park and other public land maintenance, could be voted on in the Senate yet this week. Interior Department Assistant Director of Fish Wildlife and Parks Rob Wallace says the prospects of this act are very exciting.
Wallace said, “What’s unusual about that act is that it has the support of President Trump, and the support of minority and majority leaders in both the House and the Senate; which doesn’t happen very often on anything these days. The benefits to the park are two-fold: it’s going to provide up to a billion dollars per year, to the national park service to fix broken infrastructure. The second very good thing about it is it’s going to permanently authorize the Land and Water Conservation Fund at about $900-million a year.”
Still, Wallace points not out all of the deficiencies will be fixed at once, but it will provide a predictable schedule to determine what needs to be fixed and when it needs to be fixed. He says Grand Teton and Yellowstone National Parks are world-class icons, and this funding will help keep them the world-class destinations that people are expecting.
