January 2011 - Parks & Recreation - 34

ADVOCACY UPDATE continued from page 31

32 Parks & Recreation

JANUARY 2011

What you can do:
■ Encourage your city and county governments to pass a resolution
like the one provided by NRPA in November 2010, found at
www.nrpa.org/uploadedFiles/Local%20Gov%20LWCF%20Resolution.pdf.
■ I nvite popular personalities from the local media to speak at your events.
■ Educate your congressional delegation (especially any new members of
Congress) on your support for fully funding LWCF, the importance of the
state grant portion in particular, and local success stories describing projects funded by these programs that were not solely for land acquisition.
■ H ighlight businesses that moved to your community after giving significant
consideration to the active lifestyle choices available to their employees.
of greenways, to committee-supported
national priorities must be part of the
surface transportation reauthorization
debate. Their priorities include reducing congestion and fuel consumption.
The Republican wave and its impact on
this committee will also raise the focus
on privatization as a method for funding
transportation programs. There will be
many new members on the committee
as a result of election casualties. Targeting those new members and educating
them on successful public-private partnerships in the rails-to-trails program
will help build a new group of supporters needed to protect continued funding.
In the same week as the midterm
elections, rumors were already surfacing that Republicans were considering reductions in the number of House

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committees, thus eliminating staff salaries and reducing committee budgets.
There were also rumored discussions
that they would limit the number of
committees on which a member could
serve in order to encourage more active
participation in the committee process.
These potential changes could dramatically change the advocacy program for
parks and recreation and require a complete review of the issues and strategic
approaches to be taken during the next
two years.
On the Senate side, there will be less
shuffling of committee chairs and memberships. For example, Senator Jeff Bingaman (D-NM) is likely to remain the
chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where he
has proven in the past the ability to find

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Committee, called for consolidating the
entire energy portfolio from the Energy
and Commerce Committee to the Natural Resources Committee. In his words,
this would strengthen the GOP's case
for an " all-of-the-above " approach to increasing domestic energy production.
He has also promised increased oversight of the Obama Administration's policy decisions. Leading contenders for
the House Energy and Commerce chairmanship are, of course, fighting against
moving energy issues out of their jurisdiction, but have also promised vigorous oversight of the Administration's
plans for environmental regulation and
implementation of health care overhaul.
Michigan Republican Fred Upton, who
sent weekly updates giving reasons why
he should be Energy and Commerce
chairman, joked that he would haul top
administration officials before the committee so often that they will need reserved parking spaces on Capitol Hill.
Regardless of the final placement of
the energy agenda, if both committees
are determined to hold more oversight
hearings and those hearings are likely
to include energy regulations, it can be
assumed that oil and gas drilling leases
will be part of those discussions. If so,
there may be an opportunity to present
positive feedback on the resources those
leases provide in funding LWCF and
the benefits derived by directing those
funds to ensure public outdoor space is
maximized. This could potentially help
deter the costly setbacks in LWCF funding proposed by the commission.
The change to Republican leadership
in the House moves the Transportation
and Infrastructure Committee's ranking
member, John Mica (R-FL), to the chairman's seat. The defeat of Chairman
James Oberstar (D-MN), however, who
would still have been a powerful ranking
member, created a huge void in proponents of the rails-to-trails program. Committee staff views this as an opportunity
to recommend cuts in programmatic
funding that they do not believe should
be national priorities. Tying pedestrian
and bike paths, and the development

January 2011 - Parks & Recreation

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