Advocacy Update: The New Congress

By Dolesh, Richard J

How the recent elections will affect initiatives in 2007.

The 2006 midterm elections caused a seismic shift in the U.S. Congress that could have far-reaching effects for parks and recreation for at least the next two years. Early predictions by election experts that the Democrats would gain control of both Houses of Congress proved to be true, albeit by only a razor-thin margin in the Senate.

But what will the results mean for parks and recreation?

Committee and Subcommittee Chairmanships

First and foremost, the most significant impact of the Democratic takeover of Congress is the resulting change in leadership of both the House and the Senate. Every Senate and House committee and subcommittee chairmanship will transfer from Republican control to Democratic control before the start of the 110th Congress. All legislation must pass through the committees, and the influence and control of the chairs and the subcommittee chairs is manifold.

The Democrats are in the process of naming new chairmen now. The Democratic leadership has named most of the major committee chairmen as of this writing, although subcommittee chairs have yet to be chosen. As the Republicans cede control of Congress to the Democrats, their role changes to minority status and their highest status on committees and subcommittees is ranking member.

Some of these newly-placed chairs have been long-time supporters of parks and recreation, and our national legislative and policy agenda can be expected to receive a more favorable reception in Congress. Additionally, the powerful Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate are particularly important to parks and recreation. Rep. David Obey (D-Wisc.) will chair the House Appropriations Committee and Sen. Robert Byrd (D-W.V.) will chair the Senate Appropriations Committee. An up-to-date list of all committee and subcommittee chairmen can be found at www.senate.gov or www.house.gov.

Appropriations and Budget

The 109th Congress was continually challenged by adopting a comprehensive budget for each fiscal year. This past year, the committees made excellent progression preparing appropriations bills for the 2007 fiscal year. However, only two of the 12 appropriations bills were passed before Congress got caught up in election year politics.

When the results of the 2006 elections became clear, the Republican leadership made little attempt to pass the remaining appropriations bills. For many reasons the Republican leadership preferred to punt the thorny budget deliberations to the 110th Congress, and chose to fund the federal government with a series of Continuing Resolutions (CR). The last CR funding federal government operations was expected to expire in mid-February.

Federal Technical Assistance and Grant Programs

The budgets of the Bush years have not been kind in providing adequate funding for federal technical assistance and grant programs to local, regional and state park and recreation agencies. Valuable programs, such as the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service, which provides planning services and technical assistance to local and state governments on greenway projects, trails and conservation projects, has been proposed for cuts in the past two years, just as many other assistance programs have been cut.

Likewise, federal matching grant programs have been received with little or no enthusiasm by the Republican-controlled Congress. The Urban Park and Recreation Recovery Act (UPARR) which provides matching federal funds to cities for planning and implementation of urban park rehabilitation projects has received zero funding for the past four years.

The Community Development Block Grant Program (CDBG), a $4.2 billion program in 2005, was proposed for a $1 billion cut in 2006 by the Bush Administration. More than $100 million per year in CDBG funding goes directly to park and recreation projects in urban areas.

While prospects for the new Congress would seem to be much better for NRPA’s policy and legislative agenda with regard to re-building these diminished federal programs, it should be noted that there is no quick fix on the horizon. Funding will be tight for a number of years to come, and our gains can at best be incremental. However, on the bright side, this should be a Congress that is more willing to agree with our agenda and more receptive to our point of view on these appropriations and assistance programs.

Environmental Policy

One of the most anticipated and expected changes from the new Congress will be new direction in environmental policy and conservation initiatives. Sustainable energy resources, climate change, public lands use policies, endangered species protection, clean water, air pollution and a host of other environmental and conservation issues will be high on the priority list.

In terms of public lands policies and conservation and natural resources objectives (long a priority for NRPA’s advocates) the new Congress is expected to be more supportive of national policies that promote public lands. One of the most important national land conservation programs for NRPA is the Land and Water Conservation Fund, and NRPA will hope to see the strong Congressional support shown in the past two years for both the federal and state side of the program to make a difference with the Administration, (see the sidebar to the right)

Health and Wellness

NRPA’s national legislative and policy agenda has expanded dramatically in recent years in support of health, wellness and livable communities. New Democratic leadership in the various committees that authorize or appropriate funds for programs that support health and wellness can potentially have a huge impact on NRPA’s ability to secure federal funds that go to park and recreation agencies.

The shift in control in Congress may have more of an impact on the authorization level. Sen. Edward Kennedy (D-Mass.) has sponsored several pieces of legislation and various amendments to combat obesity and his committee, the Health Education, Labor and Pensions Committee, must take up the reauthorization of No Child Left Behind. This will be one of the committee’s largest challenges, but not one that falls high on Kennedy’s priority list. Instead, the committee will likely focus its attention on the overhaul of the National Institutes of Health, the Food and Drug Administration and on stem cell research.

Democratic control of the House’s Ways and Means Committee will also have a lasting impact. Although the chair of the Health Subcommittee has yet to be named, there will likely be some movement of health promotion initiatives out of this committee.

Finally, the Democrats taking control of the Agriculture Committees will have an enormous impact on the reauthorization of the Farm Bill. Sen. Bill Harkin (D-Iowa) has voiced his desire to overhaul agriculture policy including an increase in support for conservation programs and preserving the nutrition programs that protect the needy.

Transportation

Transportation issues have become increasingly important to park and recreation advocates for many reasons. The integration of alternative transportation networks into community transportation planning; the substantial increase of funding for bike and pedestrian trails; the Transportation Enhancements program; Safe Routes to School; and many other transportation related programs all add up to more than a billion dollars per year that is available to communities and states for park and recreation expenditures.

In addition, bedrock protections for parks and historic sites have been under attack by powerful transportation interests and such protections have been vigorously defended by NRPA in the runup to passage of SAFETEA-LU.

Rep. James Oberstar (D-Minn.) will take over as chair of the powerful Transportation and Infrastructure Committee. Oberstar has been a staunch friend of parks and recreation and a champion for trails and alternative transportation. NRPA’s agenda for livable communities, trails and alternative transportation projects should receive a good reception in Congress under his committee.

However, there is a crisis in transportation funding looming on the horizon. It is widely estimated that the Transportation Trust Fund into which the federal gas tax is paid, will go broke, possibly even before the end of this six-year authorization cycle. Look for NPRA to be actively engaged in transportation policy development and advocacy in the new Congress.

Congress Approves Legislation with Dedicated Funding for LWCF

In one of the final bills passed by the 109th Congress, the House and Senate approved legislation that included dedicated funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund State Assistance Program (LWCF). In the waning hours of Congress, the carefully crafted Senate bill to approve expansion of oil and gas drilling leases in the eastern Gulf of Mexico was accepted by the House, and then approved by the full Congress as one of its final acts.

This bill dedicates 12.5 percent of lease royalty revenues directly to the LWCF state assistance program and the funding is not subject to further appropriations. This is an historic achievement for NRPA’s advocacy, and it is probable that this provision of the bill would have been \dropped if it were not for the tireless efforts of NRPA members and coalition partners.

Revenues from this legislation will take years to see, so our advocacy for LWCF must not diminish. But the long-term future of this valuable and worthwhile program looks considerably brighter because of this significant victory.

Tom Alexander, a member from Tennessee says about this momentous victory: “Thank you to all who worked so diligently to bring this about. It’s a strong statement for NRPA and its mission.”

Richard J. Dolesh is director of public policy for NRPA. Monica Hobbs Vinluan, senior policy associate, and Mike Phillips, policy and advocacy specialist, contributed to this article.

Copyright National Recreation and Park Association Jan 2007

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