President Trump signed the Great American Outdoors Act yesterday, giving a nearly $3 billion boost to conservation, outdoor recreation and maintenance of public land.
The legislation had bipartisan support and some say it is the most significant conservation act in the last 50 years, and the president took it one step further.
“There hasn’t been anything like this since Teddy Roosevelt, I suspect,” Trump said.
The Great American Outdoors Act requires full, permanent funding of the popular Land and Water Conservation Fund and addresses the maintenance backlog facing national parks and public lands. The law would spend about $900 million a year — double current spending — on the conservation fund and another $1.9 billion per year on improvements at national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and range lands.
Interior Secretary David Bernardt said the law will help create more than 100,000 jobs.
Those who championed the bill included Republican Sens. Cory Gardner (CO) and Steve Daines (MT) and Democrats Maria Cantwell (WA), Joe Manchin (WV) and Tom Udall (NM).
The Associated Press contributed to this report