Great Outdoors Act

The Great American Outdoors Act passed earlier this year. It passed the House on April 9th, 2019 by voice-vote, the Senate June 17th, 2020, the revised bill passed the House on July 22nd, and was signed by Pres. Trump August 4th. Initially put forward by John Lewis, yes, that John Lewis, the particularly famous one, and Cory Gardner, it attracted dozens of cosponsors and passed with large bipartisan majorities. Those were real bipartisan majorities too, not one Rep/Senator splitting to join the other side.

The bill itself does two things, both funding related. It supports the National Park System financially with $9.5 billion for maintenance, and $900 million per year for ten years to the Land and Water Conservation Fund. The national parks need some maintenance. This was a good bill. It did have some shenannigans involved, but the bill is still useful on the whole.

There’s good work being done in the world, in the US, and in Washington, and it’s hard to find it, read about it, or hear about it.

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