Ivanka Trump goes West to boost administration’s conservation, childcare agenda

Ivanka Trump will headline a publicity tour to the Rocky Mountains this week for the $20 billion boost to national parks in the Great American Outdoors Act, which won final approval Wednesday in the House and is headed to the president’s desk.

President Trump has said he’ll sign it.

The bill, praised by conservation groups as the most important legislation regarding the national parks in the last half century, would spend at least $20 billion to improve facilities in the U.S. parks system.

COVID-19 restrictions have crimped many travel plans in 2020, but last year the National Park System reported more than 330 million visitors, which White House officials said packed an economic punch of more than $41 billion.

Studies show each $1 million spent should support 30 jobs. All told the Great American Outdoors Act projects should translate into 110,000 “infrastructure-related” jobs, according to the administration.

The bill will make permanent the funding mechanism already in place for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is supposed to receive $900 million a year from royalties on offshore oil drilling contracts.

However, Congress doesn’t always approve the money.

To highlight the administration’s backing of the bill and its record of supporting conservation, Ms. Trump, who is President Trump’s daughter and a White House adviser, will make a stop Thursday at Rocky Mountain National Park.

She will be accompanied by Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt and Colorado Republican Sen. Cory Gardner.

“We really feel that with this legislation you can put President Trump’s conservation legacy up against anyone, including Teddy Roosevelt,” said a senior administration official. “This is long overdue and a long time coming.”

Ms. Trump also plans to visit a Denver daycare center. The visit dovetails both with her portfolio of issues within the administration and widespread concerns the national system may prove incapable of dealing with the number of children looking for places should the coronavirus keep schools closed.

Many states, including most counties of California, have announced public schools will not reopen for in-person classes in the fall.

“As this economy begins to recover the question a lot of parents have is where are they going to send their children,” another administration official who has worked closely with Ms. Trump on the issue said. “The concern is we won’t have enough centers open, especially with social distancing requirements.”