David Thomas: “I rise today and come to the floor to thank the Senate and the House for the passage of S. 1693, the Vision 2020 bill…”

“I rise today and come to the floor to thank the Senate and the House for the passage of S. 1693, the Vision 2020 bill, national parks reform. I think it is a great day for the Congress and for our national parks. Parks are one of the real resources, one of the real treasures that we have in this country that I think all of us have feelings for. There are lots of different parks and lots of different kinds of parks, but they are all our heritage. They are our culture. I think we have known for some time that the parks have needed some assistance. They are more visited now than ever. They are more utilized, as they should be, by Americans than ever. The Park Service, on the other hand, thinks that they are at least $10 billion in arrears in infrastructure costs and they need to change. I think there is a willingness to change on the part of the Park Service. So through hard work and bipartisan compromise we forged a bill that will preserve and help protect our parks now and well into the next century.”