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ASLA President-elect Candidates Field Questions on Legislative Priorities
LAND Online asks the candidates about their legislative priorities.
Each year, ASLA hosts a Lobby Day for members of the Board of Trustees and Chapter Presidents to meet with their Congressional representatives about issues affecting landscape architecture and the profession. If elected, what three federal legislative and/or regulatory issues will top your agenda and why?
Perry Howard, FASLA
At present, ASLA’s current federal priorities are Security Design; the Historic American Landscape Survey (HALS); Disaster Response and Hazard Mitigation; the Safe, Accountable, Flexible, Efficient Transportation Equity Act: A Legacy for Users (SAFETEA –LU); Water Resource Planning and Management; and Active Living by Design.
This year’s Lobby Day will focus on Security Design, Hazard Mitigation and Disaster Response, and the ASLA Congressional Fellows Program.
A recent government affairs survey of 1,450 ASLA members found that their overall federal priority is Sustainability, while their state priorities are Smart Growth, Transportation, and Sustainability in that order.
To their credit, the governance and staff of ASLA have invested a considerable amount of time in federal legislative and/or regulatory issues. All of the issues affect the health, safety, and welfare of all Americans. So, it is difficult to say one is more important than others.
However, if elected, the three federal legislative and/or regulatory issues that will top my agenda will be those the society prioritizes. As an individual, I think long-term priorities should address Sustainability, Disaster Response and Hazard Mitigation, and Water Resource Planning and Management issues. My short-term priorities would include Security Design, Smart Growth and HALS.
The reasons for my selection of these priorities are based on the following questions:
- What are the issues affecting most Americans?
- What affects us most in the ASLA?
- What issues are landscape architects more likely to have a significant impact in drafting and pushing through legislatively?
- What are the issues that are of particular importance to landscape architects like HALS and Security Design?
Some of these priorities will be with us for a long time. We must keep these in the forefront and continue to work on them. Others may be accomplished in a few years and we can add new ones. We should continue to engage our membership in setting priorities and deciding where our efforts can be more meaningful to the society. As president that will be one of my most important jobs.
Van L. Cox, FASLA
Land
ASLA continues working with the National Park Service on HALS and partnering with the Surface Transportation Policy Project--advocating sustainable, diversified transportation alternatives--after the reauthorization of TEA-21 (SAFETEA-LU). ASLA has also emphasized security design, and it would remain one of my highest priorities because of the tremendous cost to the U.S. culturally, and because, paradoxically, security design must become more user friendly. Our borders are porous and national treasures vulnerable, but we have indirect involvement already because immigrants frequently implement our designs, and Congress should be reminded of the recent renovation of the Washington Monument--a vivid illustration of maintaining quality of experience in security design.
Water
Irrigation, water quality, hydrological stability (particularly in the western U.S.) and flood hazard mitigation issues should receive critical attention in ASLA's policymaking. My priority, however, is the proposed Coastal Zone Restoration and Preservation Act, dedicating a portion of federal offshore exploration revenues toward mitigation--after decades of harmful extractive practices, thereby reversing the negative impacts. Some states have seen the error of their ways during the last century, having permitted wholesale destruction of these areas by various extractive industries, and after the recent hurricanes, Congress may be in a more receptive mood for ASLA's advocacy.
In between
Listed last, but really my #1 priority, is the same act, but with a different emphasis. ASLA already participated with Congressman Blumenauer (D-OR), Hon. ASLA, discussing and developing a long-term vision for rebuilding and restoring the Gulf region. The safety of coastal developments and maintaining coastal habitats that supply the nation most of their seafood and other natural resources (such as oil and slow to regenerate coastal forests) is crucial, but the Coastal Zone bill would also insure wetland restoration, site remediation and disaster response and preparation. As a related priority, I would propose lobbying against the Senate bill now being considered to open ANWAR (Artic National Wildlife Refuge) to petroleum exploration in the coastal plain, the biological heart of the refuge. If we don't, other endangered areas might follow.
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