Advocacy update: the new Congress: how the recent elections will affect initiatives in 2007
The 2006 midterm elections caused a seismic shift in the U.S. Congress that could have far-reaching effects for parks and recreation for at least the next two years. Early predictions by election experts that the Democrats would gain control of both Houses of Congress proved to be true, albeit by only a razor-thin margin in the Senate.
But what will the results mean for parks and recreation?
Committee and Subcommittee Chairmanships
First and foremost, the most significant impact of the Democratic takeover of Congress is the resulting change in leadership of both the House and the Senate. Every Senate and House committee and subcommittee chairmanship will transfer from Republican control to Democratic control before the start of the 110th Congress. All legislation must pass through the committees, and the influence and control of the chairs and the subcommittee chairs is manifold.
The Democrats are in the process of naming new chairmen now. The Democratic leadership has named most of the major committee chairmen as of this writing, although subcommittee chairs have yet to be chosen. As the Republicans cede control of Congress to the Democrats, their role changes to minority status and their highest status on committees and subcommittees is ranking member.
The 109th Congress was continually challenged by adopting a comprehensive budget for each fiscal year. This past year, the committees made excellent progression preparing appropriations bills for the 2007 fiscal year. However, only two of the 12 appropriations bills were passed before Congress got caught up in election year politics.
When the results of the 2006 elections became clear, the Republican leadership made little attempt to pass the remaining appropriations bills. For many reasons the Republican leadership preferred to punt the thorny budget deliberations to the 110th Congress, and chose to fund the federal government with a series of Continuing Resolutions. The last CR funding federal government operations was expected to expire in mid-February.
The budgets of the Bush years have not been kind in providing adequate funding for federal technical assistance and grant programs to local, regional and state park and recreation agencies. Valuable programs, such as the Rivers, Trails, and Conservation Assistance Program of the National Park Service, which provides planning services and technical assistance to local and state governments on greenway projects, trails and conservation projects, has been proposed for cuts in the past two years, just as many other assistance programs have been cut.
While prospects for the new Congress would seem to be much better for NRPA’s policy and legislative agenda with regard to re-building these diminished federal programs, it should be noted that there is no quick fix on the horizon. Funding will be tight for a number of years to come, and our gains can at best be incremental. However, on the bright side, this should be a Congress that is more willing to agree with our agenda and more receptive to our point of view on these appropriations and assistance programs.
One of the most anticipated and expected changes from the new Congress will be new direction in environmental policy and conservation initiatives. Sustainable energy resources, climate change, public lands use policies, endangered species protection, clean water, air pollution and a host of other environmental and conservation issues will be high on the priority list.