U.S. Senate passes Great American Outdoors Act

The U.S. Senate passed the Great American Outdoors Act legislation Senator Kevin Cramer co-sponsored to address the maintenance backlog across the National Parks Service including at Theodore Roosevelt National Park in Medora.

Cramer noted: “Passing the Great American Outdoors Act brings us one step closer to making significant, necessary improvements not only at Theodore Roosevelt National Park but also on our public lands and at Native American schools across North Dakota. Senators Cory Gardner and Steve Daines did an excellent job shepherding this important legislation through the Senate, and I thank the Trump administration for proposing this idea and working with Congress to pass it. I urge the House to take it up and send it to the President’s desk soon.”

The final bill includes nearly $2 billion per year over the next five years to address the maintenance backlog within our National Parks, Public Lands and Indian Education schools. It includes the Restore Our Parks Act which Senator Cramer helped introduce in February of 2019. In October, Senator Cramer hosted Interior Secretary David Bernhardt’s trip to North Dakota, where they visited Theodore Roosevelt National Park to examine deferred maintenance and voiced support for passing this legislation.

North Dakotans, conservation leaders, former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and current Interior Secretary David Bernhardt all expressed their appreciation for Senator Cramer’s support for this bill.

“Theodore Roosevelt’s Elkhorn Ranch outside Medora, North Dakota is considered the cradle of American conservation. His experiences there ultimately led Roosevelt to conserve 230 million acres of public lands in his lifetime,” said Bismarck’s Mike Eggl, a North Dakota sportsman. “So, for many North Dakotans, the passage of this legislation to care for these lands has special resonance and meaning.”

The Great American Outdoors Act also provides relief for the maintenance backlog at other federal agencies like the Bureau of Indian Education, Forest Service, Bureau of Land Management, and Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), which Senator Cramer has direct oversight of through of the EPW Subcommittee Chairmanship.