Public lands receive big cash infusion
Trump invokes Teddy Roosevelt as he enacts law
WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump signed legislation Tuesday that will devote nearly $3 billion a year to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands following its overwhelming approval by both parties in Congress.
“There hasn’t been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect,” Trump said at a White House bill-signing ceremony, comparing himself to the 26th president, an avowed environmentalist who created many national parks, forests and monuments that millions of Americans flock to each year.
Supporters say the Great American Outdoors Act is the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. Opponents countered that the money isn’t enough to cover the estimated $20 billion maintenance backlog on federally owned lands.
The Great American Outdoors Act requires full, permanent funding of the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund and addresses the maintenance backlog facing national parks and public lands. The law provides for the expenditure of about $900 million a year, double current spending, on the conservation fund and an additional $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and range lands.
In the budget proposals he has sent to Congress, Trump had previously recommended cutting money allocated to the fund, but he reversed course in March and requested full funding.
Interior Secretary David Bernhardt said the law will help create more than 100,000 jobs.
The maintenance backlog has been a problem for decades, through Republican and Democratic administrations.
The House and the Senate cleared the bill by overwhelming bipartisan margins this summer, including significant support from congressional Democrats.
Ivanka Trump, the Republican president’s daughter and adviser, who supported the legislation, described it at the ceremony as a “great legacy” for the administration as well as the country.