U.S. Senators Rob Portman (R-OH), Cory Gardner (R-CO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Angus King (I-ME), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), and Richard Burr (R-NC) today introduced S. 3422, the Great American Outdoors Act – landmarklegislation to address the deferred maintenance backlog across the federal land management agencies and to provide mandatory and permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund. Notably, the legislation includes Portman, Warner, Alexander, and King’s Restore Our Parks legislation to help address the nearly $12 billion backlog in long-delayed maintenance projects at the National Park Service (NPS), and expands the legislation to also include funding to address the deferred maintenance backlog at the U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Bureau of Indian Education.
Portman introduced the bipartisan Restore Our Parks Act with Senators Warner, Alexander, and King to establish the National Park Service Legacy Restoration Fund to reduce the maintenance backlog by allocating half of the existing unobligated revenues the government receives from on and offshore energy development up to $1.3 billion per year for the next five years. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee approved the bipartisan Restore Our Parks Act in November 2019 and President Trump has voiced his support for this legislative effort. Portman worked with his colleagues to expand the Restore Our Parks Act to address the more than $18 billion in deferred maintenance backlog across all land management agencies in the Great American Outdoors Act. This legislation now provides $1.9 billion per year for five years into the “National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund” from half of unobligated on and offshore energy revenues.
Read the full press release from Senator Rob Portman here.
Portman, bipartisan colleagues introduce the Great American Outdoors Act
