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SILVER SPRING – The Public Lands Alliance (PLA) releases the following statement from President and CEO Dan Puskar:

"America's public lands have long lacked significant investments to maintain and improve their infrastructure. National parks, forests, wildlife refuges, conservation areas and monuments currently lack the $20 billion needed to address critical maintenance issues like paving deteriorating roads, rehabilitating crumbling historic structures and grading unsafe trails. The American people also lack access to many public lands treasures, or are left without resources at the state and local levels to create new outdoor recreation spaces for rural and urban communities. Thanks to bipartisan leadership in the United States Senate, these challenges can be met head on in the coming weeks.

"The Public Lands Alliance (PLA) applauds Senators Cory Gardner (R-CO), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Steve Daines (R-MT), Mark Warner (D-VA), Rob Portman (R-OH), Angus King (D-ME), Lamar Alexander (R-TN), Richard Burr (R-NC) and the 48 additional Senators who helped introduce S.3422, the Great American Outdoors Act of 2020. This bipartisan legislation provides permanent and full funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and provides more than $9 billion to help the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and Bureau of Land Management to reduce their maintenance backlogs. The Administration has stated its readiness to sign this bill, and it is now up to those who love public lands to help get the legislation to the President's desk.

"PLA encourages all Americans to call or e-mail their Senators today to express their support for the Great American Outdoors Act and ask for them to co-sponsor this historic legislation. The time to lend our voices in support of our lands is now."

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