Posted on 8/4/2020, 5:12:29 PM by SJackson
President Trump on Tuesday signed a major piece of conservation legislation into law as he and other Republicans seek to tout conservation accomplishments ahead of the elections in November.
Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act, which would provide $900 million annually in oil and gas revenues for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), which helps secure land for trails and parks.
The legislation would also provide billions of dollars over five years to address a maintenance backlog at national parks.
"We're here today to celebrate the passage of truly landmark legislation that will preserve American's majestic natural wonders, priceless historic treasures ... grand national monuments and glorious national parks," Trump said at the signing.
His support for the legislation is a reversal of his previous desire to slash the LWCF. In his budget wishlist for the next fiscal year, Trump proposed slashing the LWCF’s funding by nearly 97 percent. The administration’s budget proposals from past years had also suggested significant cuts to the LWCF.
Announcing his reversal to support the LWCF funding in March, Trump credited two senators, Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Steve Daines (R-Mont.), who are both up for reelection this fall and running in races considered toss-ups. Holding either or both of those seats could be key to Republicans’ hopes of keeping their Senate majority.
"When I sign it into law, it will be HISTORIC for our beautiful public lands. ALL thanks to @SenCoryGardner and @SteveDaines, two GREAT Conservative Leaders!" Trump tweeted in March.
Asked how the lawmakers convinced Trump to support the measures, Gardner told reporters in June that he and Daines had made the argument in a meeting earlier this year with Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).
“We spoke for probably over an hour or so in this meeting with the president about what the two components meant, how they worked, how they were funded,” Gardner said.
“And then I showed him a picture of the Black Canyon Of The Gunnison National Park and I think Steve showed a picture as well and he looked at the park and said ‘it’s beautiful’ and we pointed up at the picture of Teddy Roosevelt on the wall and said this could be the biggest accomplishment going back to Teddy Roosevelt,” he added.
On Tuesday, Trump again praised the senators, as well as several other Republican lawmakers and officials who were at the event. He did not mention any Democrats, and a spokesperson for Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) said that he and other Democratic sponsors of the bipartisan legislation were not invited.
“Senator Manchin is glad President Trump is signing the Great American Outdoors Act this morning. Unless there was a miscommunication, he and other Democratic sponsors were not invited. It’s a shame since it has been a strong, bipartisan bill from the start,” Manchin spokesperson Sam Runyon told The Hill in an email.
The White House did not answer questions about whether any Democrats were invited to the bill signing.
Trump on Tuesday reiterated that Daines and Gardner convinced him during the meeting, saying "within about a minute I was convinced and I wasn't at all convinced before I walked in."
The LWCF provides money to protect endangered species habitats, develop parks and outdoor recreation sites and protect sensitive forests. It was permanently authorized last year, but its funding was never guaranteed. The bill would also provide up to $1.9 billion annually for five years for national park maintenance. As of 2018, the maintenance backlog consisted of nearly $12 billion worth of deferred repairs.
Trump and his administration have touted the legislation as a big conservation achievement.
However, his administration has also tried to shrink or strip protections from a number of national monuments including the Bears Ears National Monument, the Grand Staircase National monument and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine National Monument.
While the bill passed the House and Senate with bipartisan support, it also had its critics, with more than half of the House's Republican delegation voted against it.
Some Republicans raised concerns about the cost of the legislation, which would come from oil and gas revenues that go to the Treasury Department.
“It’s expensive, shortsighted and it’s wrong,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) said in June, adding that the money “is currently going to the United States Treasury to pay for a number of other costs ... and will only add to our already ballooning national debt.”
Rep. Rob Bishop (Utah), the top Republican on the House Natural Resources Committee, criticized the measure as putting money for new parks ahead of taking care of existing national parks since the LWCF funding would be prioritized.
“Now we are also saying in this bill the billion dollars of money to buy more land is now also a priority above and beyond what’s happening for the parks,” he said last month.
—Morgan Chalfant contributed. Updated at 11:58 a.m.
In other news, Trump apparently doesn't know how to pronounce Yosemite
Trump praises "Yo Semite's towering sequoias."
As though that's news, given the status of his opponent.
“The White House did not answer questions about whether any Democrats were invited to the bill signing.”
They were being polite and didn’t mention that Democrats are out looting and burning our major cities and don’t have TIME for ‘conservation’ legislation.
*SPIT*
I don’t agree with this. IIRC, the LWCF was a giant slushfund to GangGreen.
“Trump praises ‘Yo Semite’s towering sequoias.’”
He also likes to pronounce, ‘Aluminum’ as, ‘Al-You-Minium.’
*SNORT*
Agreed. We’ve got bigger fish to fry.
I’m betting if all funding for public lands were cut, private companies and groups would step in to mow paths, trim trees, repair foot bridges, etc.
And even if not, natural areas would STILL remain beautiful when left to their own devices. They were beautiful before we got to them. They will remain so. :)
BTW, your pup is cute. Tell him to be careful, I get the DNR depredation EMails which scare me a bit.
Did he mention the Corpse Man?
I’ll withold judgement until seeing what they’re doing. Maybe they’ll acquire land to expand battleground parks. Or maybe they’ll acquire land like FDR did Shenandoah and Great Smokies and throw people off their land. And I recall Clinton establishing monuments to place low sulfer coal off limits, leaving his Indonesian pal Riady the largest holder of low sulfer coal globally, without US competition. Obama did the same thing. And it seems the biggest problem pre Coronavirus was access and physical facilities, not lack of land, which most parks have plenty of. Facilities can be developed with private funds.
That one was hilarious, for obvious dark reasons.
There was a bit of controversy when the metal was being named in the late 1700s as to what it should be called and how to spell it. Most of the world uses "aluminium," not "aluminum." So Trump is showing he's a cosmopolitan globalist when he uses "aluminium."
For which Trump will not receive one shred of credit from the Green on the Outside, Red on the Inside eviro Nazis.
Sure do.
The country is burning.
Cheers, ‘Pod
A week back, another hunter in our group had his dog attacked by a wolf - or so he says as well as the Vet that treated the dog. Supposedly, she was at the back of the pack of hunting dogs and the wolf targeted her, pealed her off from the rest of the pack, beat her up, then left. She didn’t make it; punctured lung.
There are wolves up where Beau hunts, but they (the hunters, not the wolves!) are always armed...just in case.
And, yes. I am always anxious for his calls home each night! End of this month he’s going to Alaska to hunt Moose. I don’t want a moose head over the fireplace and I do NOT want to deal with 10,000 pounds of frozen moose meat!
(He says it will be a rare thing if they even see one.)
Take Pictures, Leave Footprints, Please! ;)
Mean while in our suburban neighborhood, cats go missing and two of the three neighborhood fawns are not seen in a week or so.
Verdict: Coyotes
I don’t take my dogs off trail in the woods. This time of year the pups are out of their dens and probably hanging around the pack’s rendezvous points. Very easy to stumble on them. Sorry about your friends dog.
I don’t take my dogs off trail in the woods. This time of year the pups are out of their dens and probably hanging around the pack’s rendezvous points. Very easy to stumble on them. Sorry about your friends dog.
In WI a many, maybe most, of the “coyotes”, Eastern Coyotes, are hybrids, wolf, coyote and some dog. Can’t tell them from wolves easily without DNA
We are, too. She was a 4 yo Plott Hound, just coming into her Glory Years. :(
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