{"id":160750,"date":"2020-06-24T16:33:31","date_gmt":"2020-06-24T23:33:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/?p=160750"},"modified":"2025-11-20T21:42:21","modified_gmt":"2025-11-21T05:42:21","slug":"rei-ceo-eric-artz-hosts-outdoor-recreation-discussion-with-senators-heinrich-and-gardner","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.rei.com\/blog\/rei-news\/rei-ceo-eric-artz-hosts-outdoor-recreation-discussion-with-senators-heinrich-and-gardner","title":{"rendered":"REI CEO Eric Artz Hosts Outdoor Recreation Discussion with Senators Heinrich and Gardner"},"content":{"rendered":"<span class=\"cb-itemprop\" itemprop=\"reviewBody\"><p><em>At the co-op, we believe the outdoors is a place to find common ground with people from all backgrounds and political affiliations. When it comes to politics, REI maintains a nonpartisan stance. At the same time, we do support an active electorate.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>The views and opinions expressed in this\u00a0discussion\u00a0are those of Senators Martin Heinrich and Cory Gardner and do not necessarily reflect the official position of the Co-op Journal or REI.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p>REI President and CEO Eric Artz hosted a virtual fireside chat last Thursday with Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-NM) and Sen. Cory Gardner (R-CO), two legislators who have supported outdoor recreation and public lands policy.<\/p>\n<p>Artz began by acknowledging how fortunate it was for the co-op \u201cto be joined by two champions for the outdoors \u2026 [who] are on the front lines of lawmaking\u00a0[and who] regularly go to bat for the public spaces that serve as the perfect venue for recreation,\u00a0for\u00a0improving our health and\u00a0well-being\u2014and\u00a0especially in times like these,\u00a0even\u00a0for\u00a0healing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><iframe loading=\"lazy\" title=\"YouTube video player\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/e5bHjE4uWdw\" width=\"560\" height=\"315\" frameborder=\"0\" allowfullscreen=\"allowfullscreen\" allow=\"accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share\" referrerpolicy=\"strict-origin-when-cross-origin\"><\/iframe><\/p>\n<p>During the conversation, Artz discussed with the senators why outdoor recreation has remained one of the few bipartisan policy issues in Congress and how to translate this unity toward other topics like climate change and environmental justice.<\/p>\n<p>Sen. Heinrich\u00a0pointed to the\u00a0outdoor recreation\u00a0economy, which accounted for\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.bea.gov\/data\/special-topics\/outdoor-recreation\">2.5 percent of GDP<\/a>\u00a0in his home state of New Mexico\u00a0and 2.2 percent nationwide\u00a0in 2017, and its impact on bipartisanship.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cHaving people working in outdoor recreation in our communities, in rural communities in Colorado and rural communities like Taos and Silver City in New Mexico, has really changed that conversation [about public lands] and brought people together from both sides of the aisle to support what we know is important for everyone,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n<p>The discussion comes on the heels of\u00a0<a href=\"\/blog\/news\/landmark-bill-will-allocate-billions-to-public-lands-help-states-address-park-inequity\">the\u00a0Senate\u2019s\u00a0bipartisan passage of the Great American Outdoors Act<\/a> last week by a vote of 73-25. The landmark bill would provide $900 million annually for the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and up to $9.5 billion to reduce the maintenance backlog on federal public lands. Over the coming decade, the total funding will approach $20 billion. Senators Heinrich and Gardner were instrumental in ensuring this legislation passed with support from both parties.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPublic lands issues are not Republican or Democrat; they\u2019re American issues. When you deal with an issue that affects every single one of our communities, whether it\u2019s an eastern state that has a forest or a community park issue or a western state that has a national park issue, we are all in it together,\u201d Sen. Gardner said. \u201cThat\u2019s what these public lands bills have given us the opportunity to prove.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>REI will continue to encourage\u00a0public\u00a0policy that supports\u00a0<a href=\"\/stewardship\/protecting-our-public-lands\">the goal of sustaining and increasing recreational opportunities<\/a>\u00a0and ensures everyone can benefit from time spent outdoors.<\/p>\n<p>Although this was the first such discussion, REI plans to host future bipartisan fireside chats with lawmakers. The co-op hopes these conversations can remind us that as a country, we can still find policies that bring people together.<\/p>\n<\/span>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>At the co-op, we believe the outdoors is a place to find common ground with people from all backgrounds and political affiliations. When it comes to politics, REI maintains a nonpartisan stance. At the same time, we do support an active electorate.\u00a0 The views and opinions expressed in this\u00a0discussion\u00a0are those of Senators Martin Heinrich and [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":160774,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1465],"tags":[727,656,682,1484,610],"internal-tag":[],"class_list":["post-160750","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-rei-news","tag-latest-posts","tag-public-lands","tag-rei-news","tag-staff-society","tag-united-outside"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","canonical_url":"https:\/\/rei.com\/blog\/rei-news\/rei-ceo-eric-artz-hosts-outdoor-recreation-discussion-with-senators-heinrich-and-gardner","smart_links":{"inbound":0,"outbound":0},"traffic_boost_suggestions_count":0,"meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"REI CEO Eric Artz Hosts Outdoor Recreation Discussion with Senators Heinrich and 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