President Trump Signs the Great American Outdoors Act

On Tuesday, President Trump signed into law the Great American Outdoors Act, a measure with broad bipartisan support that provides mandatory annual funding of $900 million to the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and offers billions toward fixing the nation’s crumbling parks and public lands. Permanent LWCF funding has been debated in Congress for years but failed to gain legislative traction until President Trump withdrew his opposition as a means of sending support to two GOP senators from western states facing tough re-elections, Senator Cory Gardner (R-Colorado) and Senator Steve Daines (R-Montana). President Trump heralded the new law as a groundbreaking environmental achievement that he and the Republican deserved credit for, “at some point, they’ll have to start thinking about the Republican Party and all of the incredible things we’ve done on conservation and many other fronts.”