Last week, the United States Congress passed the Great American Outdoors Act, a truly remarkable and historic piece of legislation that seeks to fix the infrastructures that have been slowly deteriorating at national parks all across the country. The package also includes a bill that will fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which protects natural areas and water resources.
In specific, the new act allocates $9.5 billion to maintenance efforts within our national parks over the next five years in addition to a $900 million budget per year to actually buy land for conservation.
As staggering as the mentioned numbers are, the budget might not be enough to carry out all necessary repairs. Back in 2018, the National Park Service mentioned over "$11.9 billion in backlogged maintenance and repair needs for the more than 5,690 miles of paved roads, 21,000 miles of trails and 25,000 buildings" across the country's national parks.
The effort's importance isn't strictly related to its subject matter: the legislation passed with bipartisan support which, in today's America, is just as momentous as an occasion as the bill itself. Although President Donald Trump has yet to sign the act into law, he has already expressed his support for it.
"We MUST protect our National Parks for our children and grandchildren," he wrote on Twitter last week. "I am calling on the House to pass the Great American Outdoors Act today."
We're excited to see the changes that the new funding will bring about and, today more than ever, we are proud of a country that places due importance on our natural treasures.
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