On the recordJune 10, 2020
the Senate has taken up and will be voting soon--I hope successfully--on watershed environmental legislation that will provide for municipal, county, State, and national parks and public spaces in America for generations to come. This is legislation I have been working on for years--legislation that I pushed hard to advance as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and legislation for which I am now a cosponsor. The bill is going to repair public spaces, making them usable by all, while creating new public spaces that reflect the continuing story that is our great country. In my view, when the Senate debates this kind of legislation, the debate also has to include a discussion about a particularly important topic, and that is jobs. A major component of this bill is, of course, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which puts funding into natural wonders all over the country, in cities and in rural areas. Today, I want to speak for a moment specifically about those rural areas and rural economies. The economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic has hit so many of our rural communities like a wrecking ball. These are communities that have been struggling going back a long time, and building back up after COVID-19 is going to be enormously challenging. So the Senate ought to be looking at every good idea that can help get these rural economies moving again.…





