Every Kid Outdoors Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3186) to establish an Every Kid Outdoors program, and for other purposes, as amended.

The Clerk read the title of the bill.

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The Every Kid in a Park program launched in 2015 as part of the National Park Service's centennial anniversary to encourage the next generation of park visitors. The program offers fourth graders and their families free entrance to our national parks. To date, Every Kid in a Park has enabled more than 350,000 fourth graders to use our national parks and public lands as outdoor classrooms. I have personally seen the positive impacts visiting national parks, historic sites, and recreation areas can have on young people in my home State of Montana.

Special places like Glacier National Park, Little Bighorn Battlefield National Monument, Bighorn Canyon National Recreation Area, and the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument will be more accessible to fourth graders from all over the country with the passage of this bill.

H.R. 3186 codifies this program by directing seven agencies to jointly establish the Every Kid Outdoors program to provide any fourth grader in the U.S. with a pass to gain free access to Federal lands and waters. This includes the National Park Service, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Bureau of Reclamation, the U.S. Forest Service, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption of this measure, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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Mr. GIANFORTE. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.

The yeas and nays were ordered.

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