Ian Brickey (202) 675-6270 or ian.brickey@sierraclub.org
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- Today, the House of Representatives passed the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act. The historic bill permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund, guaranteeing $900 million annually for the improvement of our parks. It also provides $9.5 billion over five years to address the nearly $12 billion backlog of maintenance projects across national parks and public lands.
“The Great American Outdoors Act is one of the most important conservation bills in a generation,” said Michael Brune, the Sierra Club’s executive director. “For years, the promise of the Land and Water Conservation Fund was broken, with funds meant to secure our nation’s public lands and waters diverted to non-conservation purposes. This vote turns a promise broken into a promise kept.
“Securing funding for the LWCF and to restore our parks means that we can not only begin to address the woeful state of many of our parks and public lands, but also allow us to expand investments in state and local park projects in communities that have for so long been denied access to nature and the outdoors. We thank Speaker Pelosi, Sen. Schumer, Leader Hoyer, Rep. Grijalva, Sen. Manchin, Sen. Cantwell, Rep. Simpson and the other friends of conservation in Congress who worked tirelessly to see this important bill reach final passage.”
About the Sierra Club
The Sierra Club is America’s largest and most influential grassroots environmental organization, with more than 3.5 million members and supporters. In addition to protecting every person's right to get outdoors and access the healing power of nature, the Sierra Club works to promote clean energy, safeguard the health of our communities, protect wildlife, and preserve our remaining wild places through grassroots activism, public education, lobbying, and legal action. For more information, visit www.sierraclub.org.