December 2012 - Parks & Recreation - 40

Even though many people sum up the November 2012
elections as status quo, it won't be a slow year for park
and recreation advocates by any means.
favorable results for the LWCF state assistance program.
Much less surprising than the Senate results was Republican retention of control of the House. The Republican majority will contain at least 233 members. While Democrats
made modest gains, Republicans took advantage of 2010
redistricting to maintain their majority. John Boehner (ROH) will remain the Speaker of the House, while the Majority
Leader will be Eric Cantor (R-VA). This will probably continue
the tension between Boehner, who represents the establishment wing of the Republican Party, and Cantor, who represents the Tea Party wing of the GOP.
After much speculation that she would step down, Nancy Pelosi announced she would remain as Minority Leader.
Had she decided otherwise, Steny Hoyer (D-MD) and James
Clyburn (D-SC) would have been potential replacements.
The House will also see some new committee heads.
Doc Hastings (R-WA) will remain the current chair of the
House Natural Resources Committee-he was being considered for the chair of the powerful House Rules Committee.
Hastings was a vocal opponent of $700 million of dedicated
funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund in the
last transportation bill and in his committee overall.
Bill Shuster (R-PA) wants to be the House Transportation
Committee chair, replacing John Mica (R-FL), but Mica is
seeking a waiver from Speaker Boehner to remain chair. During the most recent surface transportation reauthorization,
Shuster called for reform to many of the existing programs,
including the Transportation Enhancements program which,
among other things, provides funding for trails.
Mike Simpson (R-ID) will likely hold on to the chair position for the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee,
while Jim Moran (D-VA) is likely to remain ranking member.
It is unlikely there will be many changes to the composition
of this committee's membership, which means much diligence will be required from park advocates in the ﬁght for
LWCF state assistance funding since the House proposed
zero funding in ﬁscal years 2012 and 2013.

The Administration
Historically, the administration of a president's second term
is typically a time marked by a great deal of change. At the
Department of Transportation, Secretary Ray LaHood has
not deﬁnitively ruled out a second term. LaHood, the only
Republican in the President's cabinet, is a vocal supporter
of non-motorized transportation. If he chooses not to stay,
38

Parks & Recreation

| DECEMBER 2012 | WWW.NRPA.ORG

Antonio Villaraigosa, the current Democratic mayor of Los
Angeles and an advocate of infrastructure improvement, is
a top candidate. Other potential nominees include former
Democratic Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell and Rep. Steven
LaTourette (R-OH), who has also been a proponent of investing in transportation infrastructure.
Shaun Donovan is currently Secretary of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) and has indicated he would like to
remain. If the President wants someone else, one possibility is Carol Galante. Galante is the acting Federal Housing
Administration Commissioner and Assistant Secretary for
Housing at HUD.
The current Secretary of the Department of the Interior (DOI) is Ken Salazar. A partisan Senate would possibly
block the conﬁrmation of another DOI secretary, making
it more likely that Salazar will remain. If he does not remain, a possible candidate is Washington Gov. Christine
Gregoire. John Berry, previously the director of the White
House Office of Personnel Management and a director of
the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation and the National
Zoo, is another likely candidate.
For the position of Health and Human Services (HHS) Secretary, Kathleen Sebelius, the former Democratic governor of
Kansas, will probably remain. If she were to leave, possible
replacements include Lois Quam, the executive director of
the Global Health Initiative at the State Department, and several Democratic governors, including Gov. Martin O'Malley
of Maryland, Gov. Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, and Gov.
John Kitzhaber of Oregon.

Get Ready, Get Set, Go
These predications reﬂect the status of affairs in Washington
at the time this article was written. Some announcements
may be made by press time. Many ﬁnal decisions and Senate conﬁrmations will not be determined until Congress reconvenes in January 2013. Even though many people sum
up the November 2012 elections as status quo, it won't be a
slow year for park and recreation advocates by any means.
There are many new faces in Congress to educate on the
priorities of the ﬁeld of parks and recreation. All these shifts
in committee leadership make a difference in what legislation moves forward and what will not, and that means much
work ahead for advocates of parks and recreation.
Tushar Gurjal works for The Ferguson Group, NRPA's outside
lobbying ﬁrm (tgurjal@tfgnet.com).

December 2012 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of December 2012 - Parks & Recreation