The Rise to Power of the Congressional Anti-Parks Caucus .....

nhboy

Ubi bene ibi patria
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/report/2016/04/11/135044/the-rise-to-power-of-the-congressional-anti-parks-caucus/

"For much of the first decade of the 2000s, America’s national parks were an area of rare bipartisan agreement in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush’s Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed a $1 billion National Parks Centennial Challenge program to raise public and private money for the National Park System. First Lady Laura Bush launched new initiatives to get more young people outdoors, promoted cultural and historic preservation, and lauded and advanced the Save America’s Treasures initiative, which was started by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton to protect and preserve historic buildings, documents, and art. Likewise, Congress passed dozens of national parks, wilderness, and public lands bills with the unanimous support of its members.

Today, Washington’s bipartisan work to protect America’s parks and public lands seems like a distant memory. Since 2010, Congress has been incapable of passing individual parks and wilderness bills, legislators are pressing to sell off tens of millions of acres of publicly owned lands, and laws which help protect at-risk public lands—including the Antiquities Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund—are under relentless attack. A Center for American Progress analysis found that between January 2013 and March 2016 members of Congress filed at least 44 bills or amendments that attempted to remove or undercut protections for parks and public lands—making the 114th Congress the most anti-conservation Congress in recent history.

There is no adequate explanation for this erosion in the congressional consensus around national parks and public lands. The transformation does not appear to be a consequence of change in public opinion. Polls indicate that overwhelming majorities of voters support the conservation of national parks and public lands and hold high opinions of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and other federal land management agencies. Eighty-three percent of Americans, for example, would have a “favorable” reaction to their representative in Congress taking “a strong stand in support of policies to protect and strengthen national parks.” The congressional shift also does not appear to be a reaction to any particular action by President Barack Obama; each of the national monuments created by his administration has largely been supported by local communities and elected officials from the area.".....>


 

Merlin99

Visualize whirled peas
PREMO Member
https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/report/2016/04/11/135044/the-rise-to-power-of-the-congressional-anti-parks-caucus/

"For much of the first decade of the 2000s, America’s national parks were an area of rare bipartisan agreement in Washington, D.C. President George W. Bush’s Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne proposed a $1 billion National Parks Centennial Challenge program to raise public and private money for the National Park System. First Lady Laura Bush launched new initiatives to get more young people outdoors, promoted cultural and historic preservation, and lauded and advanced the Save America’s Treasures initiative, which was started by then-First Lady Hillary Clinton to protect and preserve historic buildings, documents, and art. Likewise, Congress passed dozens of national parks, wilderness, and public lands bills with the unanimous support of its members.

Today, Washington’s bipartisan work to protect America’s parks and public lands seems like a distant memory. Since 2010, Congress has been incapable of passing individual parks and wilderness bills, legislators are pressing to sell off tens of millions of acres of publicly owned lands, and laws which help protect at-risk public lands—including the Antiquities Act and the Land and Water Conservation Fund—are under relentless attack. A Center for American Progress analysis found that between January 2013 and March 2016 members of Congress filed at least 44 bills or amendments that attempted to remove or undercut protections for parks and public lands—making the 114th Congress the most anti-conservation Congress in recent history.

There is no adequate explanation for this erosion in the congressional consensus around national parks and public lands. The transformation does not appear to be a consequence of change in public opinion. Polls indicate that overwhelming majorities of voters support the conservation of national parks and public lands and hold high opinions of the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, and other federal land management agencies. Eighty-three percent of Americans, for example, would have a “favorable” reaction to their representative in Congress taking “a strong stand in support of policies to protect and strengthen national parks.” The congressional shift also does not appear to be a reaction to any particular action by President Barack Obama; each of the national monuments created by his administration has largely been supported by local communities and elected officials from the area.".....>


There's a very good reason, not every open piece of open STATE land should be converted to FEDERAL property.
 
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