{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["http://grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=13&itemid=1488", "Grijalva Congratulates Southern Arizona Recipients of Interior Department Grants to Train Youth in Conservation and Land Management", "2013-05-24", "2013", "2013-05", "Democrat", "House", "AZ", "Ra\u00fal Grijalva", "G000551", "grijalva.house.gov", null, null, "legacy", "Tucson, Ariz.\u00a0\u2013 Rep. Grijalva today congratulated Youth & Wildlife Conservation as Las Cienegas Grasslands and the Arizona Youth Conservation Engagement Pathway Pilot Project on being among the 22 recipients of new Interior Department grants to train and employ youth on public lands. The grants are part of the Obama administration\u2019s 21st Century Conservation Service Corps and will employ 600 young people between the ages of 15 and 25 in conservation and land management.\r\n\r\n\tSpecific details about the projects, which were funded on a competitive basis, are available here.\r\n\r\n\t\u201cI\u2019m excited to see the Interior Department investing in the future of stewardship, especially so close to home,\u201d Grijalva said. \u201cOur public lands are our national heritage, and people coming out of high school and college should be encouraged to pursue these kinds of careers. Without skilled managers, interpreters and promoters, our public lands will be at risk of degradation and lack of public interest, and that would be a terrible legacy to leave our grandchildren.\u201d\r\n\r\n\tAs Tom Kiernan, the president of the National Parks Conservation Association, recently explained in a Huffington Post op-ed, \u201cBefore grappling with the new federal mandate tocut 5 percent of its entire operating budget, the [National Park Service] was already suffering from a funding shortfall in the hundreds of millions of dollars, had already taken a 15 percent cut in the last decade, and already has a staggering $12 billion maintenance backlog.\u201d You can read that entire piece at http://huff.to/Z5o0lJ.\r\n\r\n\tGrijalva sponsors the Public Lands Service Corps Act, which reforms and updates that Public Lands Corps program to employ youth in public lands conservation across the country.\u00a0Corps participants carry out a variety of work at many of the country\u2019s most visited landscapes, including trail maintenance, wildlife monitoring, and forest fire mitigation.\r\n\r\n\tGrijalva\u2019s bill updates Public Lands Corps employee activities to be in line with current needs and land management trends. It also emphasizes outreach to new participants from underrepresented portions of the population, establishes coordinating offices for the program at the Interior Department and U.S. Forest Service, and authorizes\u00a0National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) participation. NOAA is responsible for the\u00a0management\u00a0of \u00a0the National Marine Sanctuaries System.\r\n\r\n\t\u201cWe all want to see the president\u2019s Twenty-First Century Conservation Service Corps succeed, and I hope other take this success as an opportunity to look at my bill and see what a win-win it could be for our public lands and our economy,\u201d Grijalva said.", 1, "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z", "2026-03-30T12:14:52Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["http://grijalva.house.gov/index.cfm?sectionid=13&itemid=1488"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 0.8778669871389866, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}