Raúl Grijalva: “I rise this evening to talk about the Land and Water Conservation Fund, our Nation's most important conservation and…”

“I rise this evening to talk about the Land and Water Conservation Fund, our Nation's most important conservation and outdoor recreation program. For more than 50 years, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has conserved our Nation's most cherished natural spaces and historic landmarks. This groundbreaking program, created and reauthorized on a strong bipartisan basis, has protected and expanded iconic landscapes in every State and is responsible for more than 40,000 State and local outdoor recreation projects, from playgrounds and baseball fields to urban parks and nature refuges. By reinvesting revenues from offshore oil and gas development in communities across America, the Land and Water Conservation Fund has become ``America's best parks program.'' In my home State of Arizona, the fund has provided approximately $223 million in funding to help preserve iconic places like the Grand Canyon, Buenos Aires National Wildlife Refuge, and the San Pedro Riparian National Conservation Area. Recently, I had the pleasure of joining National Park staff and students from Cholla High School, Desert View High School, and Pueblo High School for a day of appreciation at Saguaro National Park West. For many of the students that joined us on this visit, this was their first visit to Saguaro, despite it being a 15-minute drive from Tucson.…”