Happenings

Senate Passes Bill That Could Create 100,000+ Jobs; Associated Builders and Contractors Urges House PassageShare this on Facebook

Last week the U.S. Senate passed the Great American Outdoors Act in a bi-partisan 73-25 vote. While generally viewed as public lands bill focused on conservation, it contains funding that could translate into the creation of more than 100,000 construction jobs.

According to a statement by Associated Builders and Contractors (ABC), “This bipartisan legislation would help address the $20 billion deferred maintenance backlog in the Department of the Interior, $12 billion of which is accumulated by the National Park Service, creating thousands of construction jobs in the process.”

If passed by the House, which is expected to take it up prior to the July 4 break, and signed into law, it will create the National Parks and Public Lands Legacy Fund. That fund would “direct $9.5 billion in nontaxpayer funds over the next five years to improve infrastructure within the National Parks Service (NPS)” according to ABC.

ABC points to a 2019 report from the Cadmus Group, commissioned by the Pew Research Center, found that addressing the nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog would create or support an estimated 108,634 construction jobs.

You can read the Cadmus Group study here, and more about the bill here as well as ABC’s statement here.