Shenandoah National Park Trust (SNPT) became a signatory to a letter to the four leaders of Congress supporting the passage of the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) in this session of Congress. The GAOA (S. 3422) dedicates $9.5 billion to the National Parks’ and other federal lands’ deferred maintenance backlogs over five years, in addition to $900 million to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) in perpetuity. To date over 800 organizations – national, regional, and local – have signed the letter.
The U.S. Senate voted 80-17 Monday to take up the Great American Outdoors Act, a bill championed by Sen. Mark Warner that would permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and address the $12 billion maintenance backlog at National Park Sites across the country (we’re looking at you, Shenandoah National Park!).
The bipartisan legislation includes Sen. Warner’s Restore Our Parks Act, which would help tackle the $1.1 billion in deferred maintenance at Virginia’s parks and create up to 10,340 jobs in the Commonwealth alone. Last week, the National Park Service released a report that estimated that an average of 40,300 direct jobs and 100,100 direct and indirect jobs would be supported nationally by the Restore Our Parks Act if passed as part of the Great American Outdoors Act.
The procedural vote – known as a “cloture vote on the motion to proceed” – sets up the bill for a final up-or-down vote in the Senate later this week.
AND SO, there is still time to call your senator’s office!
Use the link below to find out who your senator is if you don’t know. And, included are templates if you wish to send, for example, an email or letter to Senator Kaine and Senator Warner of Virginia. Include a brief story about how this issue affects your life.
https://www.govtrack.us/congress/bills/116/s3422/comment
For more about the Great American Outdoors Act, or S. 3422, visit: https://www.congress.gov/bi…/116th-congress/senate-bill/3422
This is a once in a lifetime piece of bi-partisan legislation.
Let’s do this.
#FundLWCF #FixOurParks #conservation #nationalparks