This morning, President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act. It is a really big deal and I give credit to all 59 co-sponsors and the President for signing this bill into law.
Bill link here - https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3422
My first lobbying effort in DC, however unofficial it was and whatever little impact I had, was in 1998, on a very similar bill titled Conservation And Reinvestment Act (CARA). In the 2000 Congress it was right to the finish line, but some anti-public land Senators got it killed unexpectedly. Given that history, I held my breath on this one, thinking that 20 years later the likelihood of a last-minute death of the bill was even higher than it was in 2000.
The number of citizens who have worked on getting the Land and Water Conservation Fund fully funded and permanently reauthorized is immense. Many of them are no longer with us, having passed in the decades of effort to get to this point. I wish my buddy Alex Deikman was here to see this. I wish Jim Posewitz had lived to see this. I could list so many more, Bob Gibson, Tony Schoonen, and the list goes on and on.
I think of how many opportunities were lost as we fought over the funding of this program. LWCF is the same age I am. Only once in its 55 years was it fully funded, yet even at those low funding levels the money was leveraged to do remarkable things. Now, it will be fully funded and we can quit fighting over diversion of the funds and turn our efforts to finding the best possible projects for which the funds can be used.
Honestly, I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. Much like when Congress intervened to delist wolves in Idaho and Montana, sometimes the political planets align and some long-fought efforts get accomplished. This is one of those times and I am grateful for such.
I think about how far the public land issue has come in the last decade. In some western states we have candidates on both sides boasting of their public land and access credentials. We have some races that could decide the majority in the US Senate that will be heavily influenced by public land issues. To me, this raised importance to public lands and conservation is a huge swing of the pendulum. Thanks to the work of so many who have helped move that pendulum.
I had been invited to the White House ceremony for the signing of this bill. Having been to enough ceremonies and seen the jockeying for photo ops by groups who value the credit more than the accomplishment, I decided time would be better spent filming a conservation video. While we were out doing that, I had a big ass smile knowing that the President was signing this important bill and that we were not going to have a last-minute debacle.
Personally, I am happy to see that both of my Senators, Senator Daines and Senator Tester, co-sponsored this bill. If you click on the link above and you find if your Senator and/or Representative helped pass this legislation, I hope you will reach out and thank them. As a collective group we are always quick to criticize when our elected officials take positions we might not support. I think it is even more important, especially for the cause of public lands and conservation, that we give them the deserved accolades when something like this is passed.
If I could drink, I would toast a cheap beer. Since I can't drink, I'll write a post and thank all of you who helped with this effort. Thank you all.
Bill link here - https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3422
My first lobbying effort in DC, however unofficial it was and whatever little impact I had, was in 1998, on a very similar bill titled Conservation And Reinvestment Act (CARA). In the 2000 Congress it was right to the finish line, but some anti-public land Senators got it killed unexpectedly. Given that history, I held my breath on this one, thinking that 20 years later the likelihood of a last-minute death of the bill was even higher than it was in 2000.
The number of citizens who have worked on getting the Land and Water Conservation Fund fully funded and permanently reauthorized is immense. Many of them are no longer with us, having passed in the decades of effort to get to this point. I wish my buddy Alex Deikman was here to see this. I wish Jim Posewitz had lived to see this. I could list so many more, Bob Gibson, Tony Schoonen, and the list goes on and on.
I think of how many opportunities were lost as we fought over the funding of this program. LWCF is the same age I am. Only once in its 55 years was it fully funded, yet even at those low funding levels the money was leveraged to do remarkable things. Now, it will be fully funded and we can quit fighting over diversion of the funds and turn our efforts to finding the best possible projects for which the funds can be used.
Honestly, I never thought it would happen in my lifetime. Much like when Congress intervened to delist wolves in Idaho and Montana, sometimes the political planets align and some long-fought efforts get accomplished. This is one of those times and I am grateful for such.
I think about how far the public land issue has come in the last decade. In some western states we have candidates on both sides boasting of their public land and access credentials. We have some races that could decide the majority in the US Senate that will be heavily influenced by public land issues. To me, this raised importance to public lands and conservation is a huge swing of the pendulum. Thanks to the work of so many who have helped move that pendulum.
I had been invited to the White House ceremony for the signing of this bill. Having been to enough ceremonies and seen the jockeying for photo ops by groups who value the credit more than the accomplishment, I decided time would be better spent filming a conservation video. While we were out doing that, I had a big ass smile knowing that the President was signing this important bill and that we were not going to have a last-minute debacle.
Personally, I am happy to see that both of my Senators, Senator Daines and Senator Tester, co-sponsored this bill. If you click on the link above and you find if your Senator and/or Representative helped pass this legislation, I hope you will reach out and thank them. As a collective group we are always quick to criticize when our elected officials take positions we might not support. I think it is even more important, especially for the cause of public lands and conservation, that we give them the deserved accolades when something like this is passed.
If I could drink, I would toast a cheap beer. Since I can't drink, I'll write a post and thank all of you who helped with this effort. Thank you all.
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