February 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 31

By Stacey Pine

advo cacy update

The Changing Political Landscape
for Parks and Recreation
The 112th Congress offers both legislative
challenges and opportunities

T

he political landscape in Washington will be much different for the 112th

Congress, and with both parties encouraging spending reductions, park and
recreation advocates will likely be required to take on dual roles of playing
offense (working to advance new legislation) and defense (advocating to save funding for programs already authorized to receive federal funding) relative to this year's
legislative agenda of:
■■  Enactment of legislation that would fund capital park

and recreation projects and at-risk youth programs
in urban areas;
■■  Enactment of legislation to engage children in nature;
■■  Allocation of 40 percent of all LWCF funding to the
State Assistance Program; and
■■  Continued funding for recreational trails within the
transportation reauthorization.

Urban Parks and Recreation
In the 111th Congress, efforts by NRPA and the Urban Parks Coalition led to the introduction of the
Urban Revitalization and Livable Communities
(URLC) bill in the House of Representatives. The bill
authorized $445 million annually to fund urban capital park and recreation projects and at-risk youth
programs. Unfortunately, the URLC was not taken
up by the House of Representatives and must be
reintroduced in the 112th Congress. Representative
Sires (D-NJ) and Senator Whitehouse (D-RI) have
indicated a willingness to be the lead sponsors for
the introduction of the bill in the 112th.
Currently, urban park and recreation agencies
can apply for funding from programs such as the
Community Development and Block Grant (CDBG)
program, but must compete with other departments
within cities to receive such funding. The URLC
would authorize the creation of a program to fund
only urban park and recreation projects and programs. Advancing the URLC will require a groundswell of support in Congress, making advocacy

	

efforts to secure co-sponsors key to having this bill
signed into law.

Children in Nature
For several years NRPA has been advocating for
the passage of the No Child Left Inside Act (NCLI),
which would expand environmental education in
schools, provide hands-on field experience for students and teachers, and allow park and recreation
agencies to partner with local education agencies to
apply for programmatic grants to enhance environmental education at the local level. This bill is likely
to be reintroduced in the 112th Congress.
Another opportunity in this area is the Moving
Outdoors in Nature Act, which was introduced in
the 111th Congress and is anticipated also to be introduced in the 112th. The legislation would reconnect children, youth, and families with the natural
world by providing grants to state and local entities, such as park and recreation agencies and special park districts, for natural play areas, outdoor
recreation programs, public health efforts, outdoor
learning environments, service learning, and other initiatives.
In advocating for these bills in the environment
of the 112 th, it is important to note that both bills
would give Congress only the permission necessary to fund the programs on an annual basis, and
the actual allocation of funds would come at a later
point through the appropriations process. In other
words, simply passing these bills does not require

w w w . NR P A . ORG

FEBRUARY 2011

Parks & Recreation	 29
February 2011 - Parks & Recreation

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of February 2011 - Parks & Recreation
