Trip to Washington DC in Support of Yosemite Maintenance Funding

In October 2019, at the request of the Pew Charitable Trust, I flew to Washington DC to speak with Congressional Staff about legislation they’ve been working on for over a year – funding the deferred maintenance in our National Parks, including Yosemite. The Park Service estimated that the deferred maintenance in Yosemite alone was $646 million with $12 billion in deferred maintenance for the entire National Park System.

A representative of The Pew Charitable Trust and I met with Congressional Staff and we had a good exchange of information and a good discussion of next steps.

The Great American Outdoors bill passed the Senate on June 17, 2020 by a vote of 73–25 and shortly thereafter the amended bill was passed by the House on a bipartisan vote of 310–107. It was signed by then President Trump.  The Associated Press wrote that it would be "the most significant conservation legislation enacted in nearly half a century."