Great American Outdoors Act (S.3422)

On March 9th, a new bill was introduced to the Senate. This bill is aimed at creating a fund to clear the maintenance backlog and provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conversation Fund. The maintenance backlog would be applied to the National Park Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Serivce, the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Indian Education. If passed, this bill would provide valuable support to maintain our historic and cultural resources across the nation.

The importance of this bill exceeds maintaining the grounds of parks. The National Park Service, aside from the historic and cultural sites the NPS overseas directly, manages grant programs under the Historic Preservation Fund. These grants aid State, Territorial, and Tribal Historic Preservation offices; enable nominations for the National Register of Historic Places and include the Save America’s Treasures, as well as many more.

National Heritage Areas work with the NPS across the country. The MotorCities National Heritage Area is one one of these nonprofits that works with the NPS. We are the proud winner of a MotorCities National Heritage Area Grant for our MotorCities Downtown Auto History Tour. Without the grant support from The National Park Service, grants like this would not be possible to nonprofits dedicated to preserving history.

Supporting this bill will greatly support community and cultural assets that preserve our Nations cultural heritage.

CALL TO ACTION

Please reach out to your state Senators and encourage them to support passing this bill. It is beneficial for the entire national and for generations to come.

If you want to read the bill you can do so here.