Session now, deep into business, um this is what a lot of things happen on the Hill. This is when the coalition is reaching out to members and we're so lucky to have on the Hill members to reach out to that have been committed for a very, very long time and wait for moments like this um the reason we're in this location is because senator cory gardner reserved it for us and we really wanna thank him for leading on this press conference and leading us in so many ways on this important issue, without any more introduced Kindergarten, thank you very much. Thank you, thanks to all of you for being out here today and I will know the westerners are not wearing coach right here. Alright. This is a warm day so thank you very much for the opportunity to be here and our effort today is simply this we're trying to make the lame duck a little less lame and make sure that we get some productivity on moving it forward. If you look at the great bipartisan support that we have for the House of representatives the United States Senate, Republicans and Democrats coming together and to to re authorize fully fund land and water conservation program one of the most important the most important in my mind, conservation program. This country has the crown jewel of our conservation program. Efforts at no cost to the taxpayers. We're proud of our of course, we're proud of our National parks we're proud of our National monuments we're proud of our public lands and we're proud of the opportunity this Congress has to prove to the American people that we will stand up and fight for of that. We will stand up and fight for our public lands that we will stand up and fight for the people of Colorado and Montana in Pennsylvania and North Carolina Washington across this country, to Make sure that we're doing everything we can to fight for the best of our public ideas which is our public lands. It was eighteen 93 that's right. That's right eighteen 90 31 katherine Lee bates climbed up take speak katharine Lee bates climb to pikes peak and looked around and she wrote that famous line purple mountain majesty is it's because of funds like and programs like the land and water conservation fund that we have been able to preserve those incredible purple mountain majesty is the piece that we love the forest land that we own the The publicly that we own together the opportunities to keep them together for public use, public enjoyment through the land and water conservation fund. There was a great story in the Denver post, just a couple of days ago that talked about how much have a thousands and thousands of acres that are accessible uh held by the public, but an accessible to the public and programs like the land and water conservation fund can be used to make sure that we have access to those great program so it's an honor to be here with bipartisan delegation Republicans, senators Democrats House members of the opportunities to make sure that we get this program done before the end of the year. This is what we're going to do. we We're gonna make this happen and together we can all be proud of the fact that we stood up. We thought for. We save the land and water conservation fun Well, thanks cory is the Colorado guy to Montana um no Jack on here today. We feel, like we're 10000 feet in July, right now on our respective States, but thanks for those encouraging words when I move back to bozeman mama day without proposals in 19 64, I was a year old bozeman was a town about 15000 people. Little sleepy town in Montana today bose was the fastest growing micro pollen in America and why is that. It's because of the quality of life that we have in places like Montana light Colorado it's because of programs of we allow us to access his public We talked about the landlocked public lands that we don't have access to in Montana that's one and a half million acres that the public can't access that's. What allows us unlock an example of that in fact, it was it was either peak project, just outside as long as they're in September the rocky mountain elk foundation working with the and our conservation groups were able to acquire apiece of land was And in holding on private land and we're able to turn that into public land so now our elk hunters have a place to go in wonderful elk habitat and Montana is still a place or a mom or a dad agreement. Mara grandpa can take that kid down to walmart and buy an elk tag. We hunt on our public lands in Montana and we're grateful for it. We talk about the economy Montana at seven billion dollars the outdoor economy it's tens of thousands of jobs it's, companies like sick a and sims Located in my hometown of bozeman because of the quality of life we have the quality of life because we access to our public lands. We have access to public lands because we have important programs like we have that allows that to happen. On October. Second, we pass Senate bill five 69. I served in the energy and natural resources Committee and thanks to senators on both sides of the aisle Republicans and Democrats, we move that important piece of legislation through that is permanent re authorization of the have mandatory and full funding that's the bill that came out of the House and the Senate And to quote cory gardner and Richard byrd and others, it cost the taxpayer zero. This should not be a tough debate but that's that we're in right now and of course said, let's get this lame Ducks to start flying. Let's get this done before the end of the. We need to finish the job and that's how we've got a wonderful land packages got the yellowstone gateway bill that senator tester introduced that permanent withdraw to protect that beautiful outside of chico Montana, just on the back door of yellowstone National Park as well as our National Park maintenance bill we've got some exciting legislation for the conservation community here to move forward It doesn't matter, if you're Republican or Democrat it's the right thing to do for a quality of life. Let's finish, the job Thank you, senator from the inter mountain West. Let's move to the Pacific Coast now senator cantwell. Thank you well. Thank you all so good to be here with my colleagues in the garden Center des moines and senator tester and I don't know if senator burr joining us, but certainly so appreciate his steadfast support and making sure that in the Senate that we get to vote and that we continue to move forward as many of my colleagues have already said, this is amy duggar, not when it comes to an ingredient for our economy, the fact that we give people access to our public lands helps grow jobs gives our citizens recreational opportunities and gives our communities of peace of mind and wholeness that is So important in the United States of America, I wanna thank everybody here has been working so hard on not only getting permanent re authorization of, but making that investment in the next generation of what we call access to our public lands. The fact that our colleagues on both sides of the aisle have supported in the United States Senate enough votes to work with our colleagues in the House to get spending that is mandatory for both more Park investment and four L W is a great state About our opportunities for the future, there are so many people here that have been champions joanna grist. It was one of the top champions of app in both Washington. Thank you so much. Joe daughter who is the Co founder of Red fly shop one of the best fly fishing shops in the northwest. If not the country and Joe, I want you to know I've already floated the mall, but I'm gonna come back and floated again with you and his statement is what really characterizes this lie is one of those ideas that puts everybody The campfire, together and that is why we have to keep moving forward and I also wanna thank kathy Baker from the nashville, the nature, conservancy, because she too has done so much work on this legislation. As my colleagues and said, we're here in the lame duck and we need to get the permanently reauthorization and make the down payment for the future of our public lands. Nothing could be more important on our agenda for this lame duck session. It's time that Congress not go into 20 19 with a big question Mark around such a important asset for growing our economy If nothing else, we owe it to our veterans to those in our community that recreate on public lands who hunt and fish and go outdoors to have the peace of mind to know that we're not going to leave Washington dc with such an important lands bill hanging in the balance with months and months of more uncertainty. Let's get this job done for those men and women who have served our country. Thank you This is, we can't mention this is a bipartisan bi camera effort. Um representing guy go. Thank you. Well, don't worry the House members are gonna speak now which means pretty much, much prefer and also like to put out from Arizona and I've got no code. So I know what y'all complaining about. Look the most important thing we have to remember right now in this era of politics, where there is such a bitter divide the fact that you can get Democrats Republicans House Senate, rule and urban uh representatives of this government of the people to get together so this is the deal that we want. We need to get this out and, let's get it done right now that is a miracle, so why are we Holding this up right now, I have no clue but this is probably one of the most key, most important points of legislation that has come into modern politics. When it comes to conservation, even my district, which is an urban district, we benefit from this fund and, as a whole, my whole state benefits close to 290 million dollars just from the recreational uh economy that comes from this so this is a win win. Let's get this done uh it's something that we can all be proud of. We can all hang our hats on. Thank you very much Sarah tash here I've never known you to be shy with words. If you would share some of this, we appreciate it. Well. Thank you. It is uh great to be here on this warm sunny day talking about the best constant conservation tool that we have available to us uh we're talking about the land and water conservation fund that over the years has set aside thousands of acres of land, increased active for our kids and us to be able to utilize increased access To our public lands, so that we can get out there and I can bake and hunt and fish and do the things we want. It and done some great things for parks in urban areas as you pointed out, we were here at six - eight months ago we're talking about the same issue on a day that was a little bit warmer than this and I'll tell you we're here today and we need to get this done this is this is money. This well spent. This is money that Thousands of dollars to the to the coffers of the treasures in Montana homeowners as pointed out by centered and seven billion dollars, just in Montana, that's with the beat billion dollars. Hate the table that turns into real money after awhile the presents budget cut. This fun by 99 percent We put forward in 25 million and do it, but the truth is we need 900 million that's. What it was initially funded That we're able to do that, then we can take some of these landscapes and I'm gonna tell you won't be around in another 10 or 15 years and protect them from housing developments in mining and drilling and be able to have it so that we can have good habitat and good deer. Habitat moving forward It's important we make this a top priority. Senator burr is not here, but senator burr after we had this gathering 68 months ago was the only one to stand up to his party and say enough, let's get this damn thing find it and let's get it permanently re authorize alright, let's get it Representatives held in your leadership has been alot to your local community. Looking at coastal issues in particular in your district, you've been a true leader in the House. We're so grateful for we'd love. It if you would share your thoughts So I represents New York one it's on the East end of long island district almost completely surrounded by water. We have dozens of parks that benefit from and while we've heard from members of the Senate and House from all throughout the country, I'll tell you as a new yorker and someone from the northeast. El we be reauthorization, is extremely important for us as well uh this really shouldn't be a Republican winter Democratic win, a conservative winter, a little win us should be an American win. We shall also be doing it for our our kids um. My daughters are 12 years old, I wonder if maybe one day I'll have to make a decision and missing the top vote to attend their wedding. Um. You know, as far as our priorities in life and what we do while we're here it's really for them it's for our kids it's for the next generation and while I really wanna thank all of you for being here this isn't your first time here you're here again and again and you will be here until this gets done. I really do it with the thinking of my daughters and all those who we are job or responsibilities leaves world better than we found it, that might be doing one for us here serving in Congress so, thank you for your effort and let's get this done before the new year come January. Thank you No, that is senator hundred we're, not here today. He would be hunting um it's really important part of the outdoor life of America. He's great spokesman for his passions, um and for his state and for conservation across the country Center hundred Thank you. I don't know what you're talking about I've been hunting in days. Uh. We want full funding for land and water conservation fund. We want mandatory funding for the land and water conservation fund and we want permanent re authorization for the land and water conservation. We shouldn't have to do this every few years because the truth is the land and water conservation fund is not broken. It is one of the true success stories in our government. We have lots of things. We can argue about lots of things that need to be fix that needy perform the land and water conservation fund is not one of them and it's Estimate to how well it works, that you can look around here and see people from Arizona to New York. You can see Republicans and Democrats you can people see people with urban district and rural districts and real States and urban States and coastal States. This brings us all together as senator cantwell quoted someone as saying this, this puts everybody around the campfire and never in our history, have our kids needed that access to the outdoors more so We need to come together and get this across the finish line future generations are counting on it. This is an incredible program that drives economies across our nation. We owe it to all of you. Who've been working so hard and we owe it to all of us who have kids or grandkids or constituents who are counting on this program to get this done. Thank you Go percent offense Patrick you have been a bridge builder in your caucus and um across both sides of the aisle and in both sides of the Congress. We're very grateful to you and we'd love to hear your thoughts Morning the uh the Philadelphia New York earlier in the Coast, what's wrong with this picture here we, we need to stay healthy to get this done that's where um the marina Beach and there is uh I've got to tell you I'm in my first term and there's there's, a number of things that leave you scratching your head in this town uh. This is certainly one of them. This is a no brainer folks. No brainer uh the simultaneously advancing environmental preservation um and economic growth the fact that we're here, having the discuss this is absurd. This is a no brainer approach Graham, that should be um. We offer us permanently in fully funded. No more pass work. No more bandaids that's really. What this is about. We have all um traveled. This country it's experience there are forests and natural parks of civil war battlefield, monuments, all over the place uh all those programs are benefited by this program. It doesn't come out of tax payer funds that comes out of royalties um it's worth phenomenally well and we need to continue it. No more patchwork, not a temporary authorization fully funded, give it the funding that it needs to function and to serve all of us and permanently Authorize it once and for all, I know Lee and I are gonna work very very hard we're. All important back here. You are are all very important as well. Keep up that fight identify who these swing voters are they're not with us in talk to them um and ask them what their concerns are and when you you find out what they are, let me know and I'll go Thompson that's we're. All here for as well, so thank you all for being here We, wanna thank all the members, um I did. We miss anybody that's a member uh great. We also over here. I think we need to thank the thousand members of land and water conservation fund coalition. Those are non profit organizations. They are businesses. Uh, they are using the outdoors to generate revenue for local communities they're listening to the grassroots at home and trying to bring messages here and we're so grateful that we have receptive audience. We have three more speakers lynn scarlett is the former deputy Secretary of the Carrier and she is now the external Affairs officer with the nature, conservancy and, if this point to point out that there's pressing availability with Tom corners of the nature, conservancy lynn and all of the speakers today so there will be additional opportunities to catch up with members of the coalition win Good morning I gotta say hi admire those folks that are out here without their Coast, but being a californian. I got mine and I wish I had my hat and mittens uh you know the nature. Conservancy we we have one and a half million members and guess what over the last month or so they sent two million messages to our members of Congress. I hope your mail boxes are full with one big message. We need mandatory permanent and full funding of the land and water conservation fund. Why that Message you know we have the conservancy, like to say that nature is not just nice. It's essential. Yes, it delivers conservation opportunities. Yes, it brings opportunity for recreation but it's important for local economies enormously important. It attracts people and places yes, it brings economic opportunity for outdoor recreation. It also brings us clean water the benefits are vast. This is about America. It is about Americans. We've heard a little bit of About some of the delivery and individual States, but guess what over its years, it has delivered 41000 projects in each and every of our 50 States, including to state local communities. As well as to the National plane. So I just wanna join the voices of the senators here are members of the Congress give them tremendous thanks tremendous thanks for their leadership and stepping forward to This is bipartisan no taxpayer money you've heard all the key messages so now, let's, just get going and get it done. Thank you Is someone who spends most of my time outdoors when I'm not here um I can tell you is very hardening in Colorado last year with outdoor retail show to see senator gardner and senator bennet show up together when the outdoor retail show moved to Denver. It was an incredible show bipartisan support for that industry and for that way of life and what it brings to the city of Denver. I think it was a really successful show. I think it was good for the economy of Denver and for all of the all the retailers that show up to that event, but also made an incredible statement about the power of outdoor recreation Um we have become find the coalition of talking about how big we have become um, as an economic force and I know most members of Congress get visited more often by pharmaceutical lobbyists, but outdoor recreation is bigger than pharmaceuticals. We're, about twice as big as pharmaceuticals that's. How big we are and we're starting to exert our um selves, a little bit more and share our message amy roberts with the outdoor industry Association is gonna say a few words now and um hopefully share some statistics about what we look like in this Industry So I know there's been a lot of discussion here about how cold it is and I'll just say from our industry that there's no bad weather. There is just bad gear so if you don't have a quote, I am companies will be glad to sell you one and um our job really is to talk about what we do with the money in the investment that Congress makes in our public lands system and what our industry does is we create jobs and we create seven point six million jobs every year across the us 800 and eighty seven billion dollars and economic contribution, so we really view the public land system as the infrastructure that's necessary to propel the outdoor recreation economy And in just a couple of facts, to share so the study that came out where we had government statistics looking at the outdoor recreation economy show that our industry is two percent of the and we're growing faster than the so to the senators and the members of Congress has spoken today. This is a great investment the thing that's been disappointing to us is to see that the federal discretionary spending for outdoor recreation is actually gone from two percent of the discretionary Budget 21 percent over the last decade and the fully and basically fully funding the land and water conservation fund is a way to claw some of that back and to make a statement that outdoor recreation is an economy worth investing in and um, as the centers have talked about it doesn't take money from the taxpayer is a dedicated fund that will actually create jobs and create more taxes back to the Treasury so we appreciate the bipartisan support shown here today and we stand ready in the industry to really rally the American public and thank our members of Congress who do take this vote And help us build parks and trails across the country. Thank you Access to these public lands, most of our States have alot of wonderful public land, but sometimes we do not have access to those lands and one of the things that we have does is open those linkages. Um sometimes you need to buy the private parcel that gives you access to the 10000 acres of public land that people have difficulty getting to their also other impediments in our society to people getting outside and jenny brand from the Hispanic access foundation is gonna talk briefly about what her Organization does they've been using film lightly to talk about more people getting outside and if more people We're not getting outside what are we doing what what are we accomplishing by protecting more land of people can't get there and can't use it and are using it as part of their daily lives. jenny Good morning um I'm here with with several people that we've flown in from around the country to share stories about latino community is getting outdoors because of and thanks to land and water conservation fund, um the fund has provided funding for communities everywhere to get outside it's the best single best conservation program for doing that for our communities, which are both leonard and um our film can be found on Hispanic access dot org back slash cf and it talks about five different stories of faith leaders, hunters Um family is going to their local pool people going to local fields where they can play soccer. Those are the kinds of places that you all have visited you all love um and it's often thanks to the land and water conservation fund. Those places exist and so we're here to say to Congress, we need permanent re authorization and dedicated funding. Thank you Thank you to everybody, to all the speakers and to all the members in our host, senator gardner um. I think we're finished with this press conference. This time, so we can huddle up and create more warms as we continue continue the conversation. Thank you very much Okay, I, like how it we thank you so much. Thank you. Thank you. Yeah yeah okay