Martin Heinrich: “I rise today with my colleagues from Colorado and Montana to talk about the incredible coalition that has come together…”

“I rise today with my colleagues from Colorado and Montana to talk about the incredible coalition that has come together to support the Great American Outdoors Act and why we have been able to build a group of folks ranging far beyond this body who have come together from very disparate parts of the political spectrum and very disparate parts of our incredible geographic country to support this piece of legislation. I think part of what has made this legislation so timely is what we have all been through in the last 3 months. Many of us were cooped up in our homes for weeks at a time, and it really drove home for all of us how incredibly important the time that we get to spend outside is. I know some of my colleagues, particularly from the West, have been very articulate about that. I had a chance to travel around my State at a time when many people were still cooped up in their homes. Our State Governor was very thoughtful about the rules to make sure that even as people sought to socially distance themselves for weeks at a time, they were able to get access to their local parks, able to get access to open space, able to get access to our national forests and BLM lands--anyplace, basically, where people could come together without coming together. There is no place like the great outdoors to do that.…”