Tag Archives: government

The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announced the agency’s Boating Infrastructure Grant (BIG) program will provide more than $20 million in grant funding for 19 states to construct, renovate and maintain marinas and other boating facilities for outdoor recreation. Under the BIG program, more than $2.8 million will fund projects in 19 states under the BIG Tier 1 subprogram, and ...

NMMA this week participated in a Hill briefing hosted by OCEANA, which focused on NOAA’s proposed rule to address ship strikes to endangered North Atlantic right whales and educated over 50 congressional staffers on the need for major revisions to NOAA’s proposal in order to achieve the shared goal of protecting the North Atlantic right whale population. As America’s original ...

President Biden signed into law last week the fiscal year (FY) 2022 appropriation bills, which includes a vast majority of the recreational boating industry’s funding priorities, and takes into account funding for the Department of Commerce, the Department of the Interior, and the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE).Included in the $1.5 trillion spending bill are important programs that benefit ...

Virginia Governor Ralph Northam proposed last week a two-year budget that will include nearly $245 million for outdoor recreation and Virginia’s world-renowned natural lands – a welcome announcement for the broader outdoor recreation industry, including NMMA and Outdoor Recreation Roundtable (ORR), of which the NMMA is a founding member. The new funding will help significantly expand Virginia’s network of regional trails, Virginia ...

Last week, the Washington State Department of Revenue held a hearing to finalize the watercraft excise tax depreciation schedule. The Department of Revenue proposed a final rule which reflected input from stakeholders in the marine industry and placed less of a financial burden on boat owners than the originally proposed excise tax schedule. In June, MRAA joined regional and national ...

The Wisconsin Office of Outdoor Recreation is seeking input from Wisconsin outdoor recreation stakeholders to help guide strategic planning. Complete the survey by clicking the link here. The survey must be completed by 11:59 p.m. on August 15. Initially created in the 2019 budget cycle, the Wisconsin Office of Outdoor Recreation received two years of renewed funding in the 2021 budget ...

Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson recently announced that the state will create an Office of Outdoor Recreation (OREC) within the state’s Department of Parks, Heritage and Tourism (ADPHT). The new office will be focused on developing new opportunities to showcase the state’s wide variety of outdoor activities, including boating, trail activities, and cycling. Arkansas is among the first southern state to ...

On Wednesday, the U.S. Senate passed comprehensive legislation that establishes a new exclusion process for products impacted by the Section 301 tariffs on imports from China and reinstates exclusions for products that previously received an exclusion. Reinstating previous exclusions and establishing new opportunities for manufacturers to make the case for why their products should be excluded from the Section 301 ...

Outdoor Recreation Roundtable recently threw its support behind Senator Ron Wyden (D-OR) and Representative Blake Moore’s (R-UT) reintroduced Recreation Not Red Tape Act to lower obstacles for people to recreate in, improve and prioritize the outdoors. “Outdoor recreation is a major force in the nation’s economy, contributing $788 billion in economic output and supporting 5.2 million jobs. As our industry ...

The Marine Retailers Association of the Americas and the Coalition Opposed to Illegal Tampering have made progress in Delaware after meeting with state legislators to inform them of the potential harms right to repair legislation could have on marine and related industries. An amendment to the bill, filed by Rep. Valerie Longhurst, will exempt marine equpment from potentilaly hazardous right ...