Trump signs Great American Outdoors Act to fund conservation

United States President Donald Trump on Tuesday signed into law legislation that will devote nearly $3bn annually to conservation projects, outdoor recreation and maintenance of national parks and other public lands. The measure was overwhelmingly approved by Congress. 

“There hasn’t been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect,” Trump said of the 26th US president, who created many national parks, forests and monuments to preserve the nation’s natural resources. 

Supporters say the Great American Outdoors Act is the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century. Opponents counter that the money is not enough to cover the estimated $20bn maintenance backlog on federally owned lands.

The law requires full, mandatory funding of the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund and addresses the maintenance backlog facing national parks and public lands. The law would devote about $900m a year – double current spending – to the conservation fund and another $1.9bn per year on improvements to national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and rangelands.

Supporters say the legislation will create at least 100,000 jobs, while restoring national parks and repairing trails and forest systems.

The park maintenance backlog has been a problem for decades, through both Republican and Democratic administrations.

The House and the Senate cleared the legislation by overwhelming bipartisan margins this summer. 

Among the bill’s congressional champions are Republican Senators Cory Gardner of Colorado and Steve Daines of Montana. Both are among the Senate’s most vulnerable incumbents, and each represents a state where the outdoor economy and tourism at sites such as Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone National Parks play an outsized role.

Daines and Gardner persuaded Trump to support the legislation at a White House meeting this year, even though Trump has repeatedly tried to slash spending for the Land and Water Conservation Fund in his budget proposals. 

Ivanka Trump, the Republican president’s daughter and adviser, also supported the legislation. 

The legislation’s opponents, mostly Republicans, complain it would not eliminate an estimated $20bn maintenance backlog on 259 hectares (640 acres) of federally owned lands. The legislation authorises $9.5bn for maintenance over five years.

Lawmakers from Gulf Coast states also complained that their states receive too small a share of the revenue from offshore oil and gas drilling that is used to pay for the conservation fund.