Congresswoman Elaine Luria has announced her support of Congressman Joe Cunningham’s bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act (H.R. 7092), which would permanently fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and would create a National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund.
The National Park Service estimates that the bill could support 100,000 jobs per year, $6.5 billion in labor income, and $17.5 billion in economic output. Over 10,000 jobs in Virginia alone are also expected to come from the Great America Outdoors Act. Both Luria and Cunningham have been advocates for conservation and consistently fought to fully fund our environment.
“Over the last four decades, Virginia has received nearly $360.8 million from the LWCF, supporting projects in the Chincoteague National Wildlife Refuge, the Eastern Shore National Wildlife Refuge, and Virginia battlefields like Yorktown,” said Luria, D-Va. “We all benefit from these programs that support recreational opportunities, endangered species conservation, and land conservation.”
“Over the past five decades, LWCF has become the gold standard of conservation programs and has invested more than $303.5 million in South Carolina to protect its recreational areas and open spaces,” said Cunningham, D-S.C. “Last year we permanently reauthorized LWCF and now the time has come to make its funding permanent. LWCF has enriched countless lives in the Lowcountry by protecting many of the places that make our community unique and irreplaceable, from the Folly Beach Boardwalk to Hunting Island State Park. I stand with our community, environmental and sportsmen groups, and business and tourism leaders to urge my colleagues to pass the Great American Outdoors Act as soon as possible, permanently fund LWCF and address the maintenance backlog across our national parks and public lands.”
In February, the House voted to pass Luria’s bipartisan Chesapeake Bay Program Reauthorization Act, which would fully fund the Environmental Protection Agency’s Chesapeake Bay Program at a level of $455 million over the next five years.
Luria also introduced the Fort Monroe National Monument Land Acquisition Act which will allow Virginia to transfer over 40 acres of coastal land to the Fort Monroe National Monument.
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