VIDEO LINK: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKR90PFJmOs&feature=youtu.be
WASHINGTON— Today, U.S. Senator Tom Udall, ranking member of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies, spoke on the Senate floor as part of a final push to pass the Great American Outdoors Act and announced his support for the just-introduced Justice in Policing Act .
The bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act will fully and permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), one of the nation’s bedrock conservation programs, at an annual amount of $900 million, as has been intended for decades. The legislation will also provide $9.5 billion to address the maintenance backlog for the country’s national parks. Udall fought to secure permanent authorization for LWCF in February 2019, a major victory that removed uncertainty from the future of the program. Udall has worked throughout his career to secure full and permanent funding for the LWCF. As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee overseeing the Department of Interior’s budget, Udall has successfully increased funding for LWCF year after year.
Udall also announced his support for the Justice in Policing Act and called for quick Senate action on the bill. The Justice in Policing Act , introduced today by Senators Cory Booker (D-N.J.) and Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) and cosponsored by Udall, is long overdue, and comes in response to unjust killings of innocent Black lives at the hands of law enforcement, this bill will ensure accountability, shine a light on police practices by requiring transparency, combat racial profiling, mandate racial bias training, ban chokeholds, require body cams, and will make lynching a federal crime. Udall urged Senate Republican leadership to support the legislation as millions of Americans fill streets across the country to demand system-wide police reform.
“Our nation grieves for the families of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other innocent Black men and women violently taken from their families and loved ones,” Udall said. “Black Americans have borne the brunt of this systemic racism. As have Hispanic and Native American communities in New Mexico and across the nation. So many of our officers protect and serve with honor and integrity. But we cannot continue to sweep police brutality and racial inequality under the rug.
“There are thousands of Americans of every political stripe across the nation who have come out in peaceful protest, demanding change,” Udall continued. “Instead of calling for American soldiers to repress their fellow citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, I am calling for action from this body…. This is a moment of reckoning for our nation. I call upon the Senate Majority to join with us to pass this long-overdue legislation as soon as possible.”
Udall next spoke about his strong support for the Great American Outdoors Act . “From the Grand Canyon to Stonewall National Monument to the city park in our neighborhood – our public lands sustain us a people. And we owe it to these special places – and to ourselves and our children – to sustain them for the future.
“The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act was passed in 1964. My father, Stewart Udall, was Secretary of the Department of Interior at the time, and I’m proud he helped establish the LWCF,” Udall continued. “It’s wildly popular with the American people and has touched every corner of our nation – in rural and urban areas –with parks, forests, wildlife refuges, trails, wild and scenic river corridors, historic monuments, and cultural sites….LWCF has funded 42,000 stateside projects and in my home state alone, it’s helped support over 1,200 such projects, found in every one of our 33 counties.
“Not only has the LWCF met its conservation mission 100 times over, it’s helped fuel the outdoor recreation economy and support local economies, especially in rural areas, throughout the nation,” Udall highlighted. “Since creation of the Fund, the outdoor industry has grown tremendously. It’s now an $887 billion industry that powers 7.6 million jobs. That includes nearly 100,000 direct jobs in New Mexico, driving $2.8 billion in wages and nearly $10 billion in consumer spending.
“Our nation’s conservation heritage is uniquely American,” Udall concluded. “The bill before us strengthens our nation’s commitment to conservation, to protecting our wild places, to preserving our history and cultures, and to nurturing our bonds with nature and the great outdoors. I urge every member here to wholeheartedly support our heritage and vote in favor of this bill.”
Udall’s full remarks as prepared for delivery are below:
Mr. President. Today, our nation is in pain.
It is the pain of centuries of deeply embedded racial injustice.
This nation watched in horror as the last 8 minutes and 46 seconds of George Floyd’s life were cruelly and needlessly taken from him, by a police officer.
Our nation grieves for the families of Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and so many other innocent Black men and women violently taken from their families and loved ones.
This is a pain all too familiar for too many Black Americans.
And this is a moment of reckoning for our nation.
Black Americans have borne the brunt of this systemic racism. As have Hispanic and Native American communities in New Mexico and across the nation.
So many of our officers protect and serve with honor and integrity. But we cannot continue to sweep police brutality and racial inequality under the rug, ignoring these painful legacies until the next tragedy.
There are thousands of Americans of every political stripe across the nation who have come out in peaceful protest, demanding change.
Now, there are a very small few who are exploiting our nation’s pain and using violence to disrupt.
We unequivocally condemn all acts of violence, and call for non-violent, but urgent action.
But calling for the U.S. military to quell protest – as the president and some in this body have done – crosses a line between civilian and military rule that is antithetical to our American traditions.
Instead of calling for American soldiers to repress their fellow citizens exercising their First Amendment rights, I am calling for action from this body.
Today Senators Booker and Harris introduced the Justice in Policing Act, a bill I’m proud to co-sponsor. This landmark bill:
- Holds police misconduct accountable in courts of law;
- Shines a light on police practices by requiring transparency;
- Ends racial profiling and mandates racial bias training;
- Bans chokeholds, and requires body cams; and
- Makes lynching a federal crime.
This is a moment of reckoning for our nation. I call upon the Senate Majority to join with us to pass this long-overdue legislation as soon as possible.
Mr. President – I’d like to now turn to the bill before us, the Great American Outdoors Act.
Our country’s public lands are at the very core of our national identity. They protect our natural heritage – our lands and waters, our wildlife – for future generations. Our national parks, monuments, and wildlife refuges are irreplaceable treasures –sources of beauty, of solitude, of recreation, of renewal.
From the Grand Canyon to Stonewall National Monument to the city park in our neighborhood – our public lands sustain us a people. And we owe it to these special places -- and to ourselves and our children – to sustain them for the future.
So, today, M/M President, I stand here in strong support of the Great American Outdoors Act – legislation that – at long last – fully and permanently funds the Land and Water Conservation Fund and invests in our public lands for the future.
The Land and Water Conservation Fund Act was passed in 1964. My father, Stewart Udall, was Secretary of the Department of Interior at the time, and I’m proud he helped establish the LWCF.
As Secretary, he was troubled by how difficult it was to expand public lands.
At that time, the federal government would re-designate existing federal lands to create a new national park or wildlife refuge or rely on private donations to expand. But Congress itself resisted appropriating funds to create new public lands.
At a wilderness conference in March 1963, my father bluntly said, “the path of land conservation that our government has used for more than half a century is running into a dead end.”
But he had conceived of a new path forward – “an entirely new watershed in the history of the conservation movement in the United States,” he told them.
Just three weeks before the conference, his boss -- President Kennedy -- had sent Congress a new piece of legislation, called the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act.
My father and others conceived of a federal fund that would both generate money to acquire new federal lands and provide states with funding to expand recreational opportunities.
The bill passed Congress the next year.
The LWCF has been called our nation’s most successful conservation program.
It’s wildly popular with the American people and has touched every corner of our nation – in rural and urban areas -- with parks, forests, wildlife refuges, trails, wild and scenic river corridors, historic monuments, and cultural sites.
LWCF has funded 42,000 stateside projects and in my home state alone, it’s helped support over 1,200 such projects, found in every one of our 33 counties.
After the LWCF was enacted, it became clear that the initial funding sources were too limited. My father persuaded President Johnson to support using federal revenues from oil and gas leases in the outer continental shelf to fund the program.
His plan converted revenue from a nonrenewable resource into permanent protection for our renewable natural world.
And while Congress amended the act to include this funding source and, later, authorized the Fund to annually accrue $900 million – the full promise of LWCF has not yet been fulfilled.
Throughout my career, I’ve championed increases to the LWCF. But it deserves the dedicated funding my father envisioned.
Last year, Congress finally permanently authorized the Fund – a historic victory for conservation.
It is long past time we take the next step and permanently direct the full $900 million to the Fund every year.
Not only has the LWCF met its conservation mission 100 times over, it’s helped fuel the outdoor recreation economy and support local economies, especially in rural areas, throughout the nation.
Since creation of the Fund, the outdoor industry has grown tremendously. It’s now an $887 billion industry that powers 7.6 million jobs.
That includes nearly 100,000 direct jobs in New Mexico, driving $2.8 billion in wages and nearly $10 billion in consumer spending.
Fully and permanently funding LWCF will translate directly into economic growth.
And we need to energize our economy now more than ever as we work our way out of the financial crisis created by COVID-19.
Throughout our history, we’ve seen investing in public lands energizes both our economy and our national spirit. Conservation must be a centerpiece of our recovery – at this challenging time for our nation.
Indeed, the economic benefits of the LWCF are great. But the human benefits – to ourselves, our families, our communities – may be greater.
One of the most recent federal LWCF projects in New Mexico is the Valle de Oro National Wildlife Refuge – the first urban wildlife refuge in the Southwest. Here’s a photograph of our state’s newest refuge. The Rio Grande runs along the refuge, which boasts an amazing array of wild birds -- including Sandhill cranes, the greater roadrunner, and the American kestrel. The $6 million contribution from LWCF helped make the vision for this urban oasis a reality.
Valle de Oro is special to me because it introduces young people, often Hispanic young people with limited means and limited access to nature, to their first outdoor experience.
It introduces kids to a world of wonder and a lifetime connection to nature – and it’s just down the street.
As Richard Louv discussed so eloquently in his seminal book, Last Child in the Woods, and backed it up with peer reviewed study after study -- our children need nature, and we suffer spiritually and physically when that bond is lost.
So as we take this historic action to add to our national heritage, I’m glad we are also addressing the $19 billion ’ worth of deferred maintenance on our existing public lands. Like the days of the civilian conservation corps, this work is especially timely and will help our economic recovery at a time of historic unemployment.
It’s good news that use of our public lands has increased dramatically over time. More than one billion visitors enjoy our federal lands each year.
But that means these lands’ infrastructure – our roads, bridges and trails, our campgrounds and marinas, our drinking water and sewer systems are wearing out. Historic buildings are falling apart. Trails are washed out. Roads and bridges can’t be used. Water lines and sewer systems don’t function. The list is long – 19 billion dollars long.
In New Mexico alone, we have $121 million worth of deferred maintenance needed at iconic places like Carlsbad Caverns, White Sands National Park, Chaco Culture National Historical Park, the Gila Cliff Dwellings, and Bandelier National Monument.
The Great American Outdoors Act represents a substantial down payment toward maintaining, repairing, and renovating the infrastructure on our public lands – allocating up to $1.9 billion annually for five years. This represents Congress’s most significant commitment to date to the long-term future of our public lands.
The American people own these precious resources. And we need to maintain the American people’s public spaces so all of us can continue to safely and enjoyably visit these special places. How we take care of these public places says a lot about our nation.
Mr. President, our nation’s conservation heritage is uniquely American. The bill before us strengthens our nation’s commitment to conservation, to protecting our wild places, to preserving our history and cultures, and to nurturing our bonds with nature and the great outdoors. I urge every member here to wholeheartedly support our heritage and vote in favor of this bill.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
