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Hike the Hill 2015 – It’s a Wrap!

Wrapped up Hill visits Thursday afternoon and got a late flight back to Michigan. Good to be home! In spite of what some folks think who live there, Washington DC is not the center of the universe…

However, it is the seat of our federal government and if we hope affect federal policy change—as we must do with this national scenic trail—its off to DC we must occasionally go. Yesterday’s effort was spent on the House side, visiting Republican members whose districts host the NCNST, or who might be in a position to influence House Committee action. This later is critical. The majority party (Republicans) control the committee agenda, and in our case, if we hope to have movement on HR 799 we must persuade the Republicans to do so.

My visits with staff from Representatives Benishek (MI-01), Kelly (PA-03), Rothfus (PA-12), and Stefanik (NY 21) went very well, and I’m hopeful we’ll get a few more Republican co-sponsors onto HR 799. My meeting with Cynthia Lummis’ staff was particularly critical. Lummis is a Wyoming Republican, plays a leadership role on the House Natural Resources Federal Lands subcommittee and best of all shares a trails agenda. Her bill HR 845, would boost the role of citizen stewards in addressing national forest infrastructure needs, notably including trail maintenance. We support that, and I’m hoping Rep. Lummis will both co-sponsor HR 799 and help us get action in the Committee. I left the meeting feeling like we’d made a good case.

My final meeting was with the House majority staffer to the Federal Lands subcommittee. The mantra is the same—no additional costs, no new public lands, no increased federal footprint—that has characterized the agenda of western states Republicans, who lead this committee. It was discouraging. Hopefully with some additional Republican support and an observable desire by many Republicans to “reach across the aisle” and get some work done, HR 799 will be front and center and an easy opportunity to declare a win. We’ll keep trying to position it as such.

We’re not done in Washington. I have plans for a followup visit in early March, to try to capture more co-sponsors that may be on the fence, and to use our best efforts and contacts to get HR 499 and S 403 scheduled for hearings in their respective committees. We’ll be using our webpage to keep you updated on additional sponsors and requests.