Vet Voice Foundation Statement Following the Biden Administration’s Repeal of Trump-era, Disastrous Interior Department Secretarial Orders

In response to today’s repeals, Vet Voice Foundation’s Major General (Ret.) Paul Eaton, a US Army veteran, released the following statement:

“Following November’s election, the Trump Administration’s Interior Department, led by Secretary David Bernhardt, released Secretarial Orders as part of a last-ditch effort to gut the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) and thwart one of the major objectives of the overwhelmingly popular and bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act. Today, the Biden Administration repealed those orders and again highlighted to the world the new Administration’s commitment to our nation’s public lands and waterways. 

“LWCF is critical not only to President Biden’s commitment to safe-guarding 30% of our nation’s lands by 2030, but also to the mental, physical, and economic health and well-being of communities across the country — ensuring adequate funding for parks, trails, and recreation areas. 

“Veterans worked hard to see full, permanent funding for LWCF become the law of the land. To watch — after so much work by so many throughout the country — the anti-public lands zealots of the Trump Administration undermine the wishes of Congress and the American people was disheartening. 

“To say that we’re inspired and reenergized by the actions of the Biden Administration, from today’s Secretarial Order repeal to the recent Executive Order pausing new leasing on federal lands to the 30 by 30 plan, is an understatement. 

“There’s no doubt still plenty of work to do. And we’re at the ready to do what’s required to see victories like today repeated in the months and years to come.”