Rob Portman: “I am here on the floor today to talk about the legislation that is before the Senate, which is a great opportunity to…”

“I am here on the floor today to talk about the legislation that is before the Senate, which is a great opportunity to help our national parks. The bill does a number of things that people have heard about to help with regard to our public lands, with regard to fishing access, and with regard to community parks. Yet one thing it does that is absolutely essential is it included the Restore Our Parks Act. That is legislation which is necessary right now to fix our national parks. I say fix our national parks--they are our treasure. When people are asked about the national parks, they usually use that word. It is a treasure. It is a great asset of the United States. I think Ken Burns said it is ``America's best idea.'' He did a great documentary on the parks, by the way. The point is, our national parks are spectacular. They are majestic. They tell the history of our country. There are so many good things about them. The problem is that right now, our parks are under a huge backlog of maintenance projects--$12.5 billion. That is way more than the parks' budget. They just can't get out from under it. It has been happening for years and years and years. Think about people going back to our parks this summer after the coronavirus hopefully gets better and people are able to go to these reopened parks. We will probably have huge attendance.…”