Led by the Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), outdoor recreation businesses and associations are calling on Congress to enact legacy legislation for the great outdoors by passing a first-of-its-kind recreation package.
There are dozens of bipartisan, bicameral bills that don’t cost taxpayers money and make updates or reforms to help outdoor business continue to create jobs, grow local economies and improve land and water management, ORR said, helping all people enjoy the outdoors in their communities or on iconic public lands system across the country.
With the introduction of The Outdoor Recreation Act, the coalition said now is the time to gear recreation policies up for the 21st century as visitation and demand for outdoor recreation is increasing in every corner of the U.S.
In addition to The Outdoor Recreation Act, ORR has been pushing for a recreation package to include the Simplifying Outdoor Access for Recreation (SOAR) Act, the Ski Hill Resources for Economic Development (SHRED) Act, the Modernizing Access to Public Land Act (MAPLand Act) and the Recreation Not Red Tape Act (RNR), among other bipartisan and pragmatic outdoor recreation legislation.
“Across the nation, we see outdoor recreation bolstering local communities’ economies, employing millions of Americans and contributing to the physical and mental health of Americans before, during and eventually after the pandemic,” said Jessica Turner, president of ORR. “We need these common-sense bills to help get more people get outside, while protecting our natural resources now and for generations to come. These bills, if passed, will ensure the outdoor recreation industry can keep doing what we do best – contribute to healthy people, places, economies, and communities.
“Other industry sectors of similar size have packages all the time, and the outdoor recreation industry needs to be the same,” she said. “The bills we are asking for in this package don’t cost taxpayers anything – they are simply better tools and streamlined policies for agencies to help get more Americans better access to the outdoors.”
The coalition recently passed a letter to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. Click here to view the full letter.
Yesterday, U.S. Senators Joe Manchin, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and John Barrasso, ranking member of the committee, introduced the Outdoor Recreation Act. The bipartisan legislation would increase and improve outdoor recreation opportunities across the nation, while improving infrastructure and driving economic growth in rural communities.
