HikeArizona.COM

The legislation has two main impacts. First, it establishes a National Park and Public Lands Legacy Restoration Fund that will provide up to $9 billion over the next five years to fix deferred maintenance at national parks, wildlife refuges, forests, and other federal lands, with $6.5 billion earmarked specifically to the 419 national park units...Second, the GAOA guarantees $900 million per year in perpetuity for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF), a flagship conservation program paid for by royalty payments from offshore oil and gas drilling in federal waters.

Rep. Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.), chairman of the Congressional Western Caucus, called the bill "a demonstration of everything wrong with Washington ... written not by committees but in backrooms, packed full of special interest provision and now being forced through without the opportunity for us to amend it."

House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) appeared unfazed by the onslaught. "Today, I didn't think it was necessary to engage in the same argument we've been engaging in about the LWCF and the backlog," Grijalva said in his concluding remarks. "This legislation is not about robbing Peter to pay Paul. It is not about taking money from the East to give to the West. It is not about denying coastal states their share.

nonot wrote:only on maintenance for paved roads and improving Tonto FS maintained campgrounds.

big_load wrote:I thought that's what the Tonto Pass money was for.