There’s very little coming out of Washington these days that we can all agree on. But if you’re an angler, the Great American Outdoors Act, signed into law in August, is something to be glad about.
As the single largest investment in our lands and waters in a generation, the act addresses two long-standing priorities for outdoor recreationalists. First, it fully funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is a program that conserves and maximizes access for recreational use of public lands. Second, the bill takes on the maintenance backlog on our public lands and waters by investing in boating infrastructure like docks, ramps and parking facilities.
According to President Trump, the bill renews our national parks and protects local lands, while also serving as a jobs and infrastructure package that will create more than 100,000 additional infrastructure-related jobs.
The legislation provides $900 million a year in permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and will allocate $9.5 billion over 5 years to restore facilities and infrastructure in our national parks and public lands.
Read the whole bill S.3422-Great American Outdoors Act at www.congress.gov.