The sun is setting on the 115th Congress, with just weeks left to advance legislative proposals that have been debated over the past two years on Capitol Hill. While time is short and the legislative laundry list is long, the House and Senate should take full advantage of the remaining time by passing legislation that enjoys bipartisan support and will benefit all Americans. At the top of that list is a comprehensive package — commonly referred to as the Lands Package — that will enhance America’s great outdoors and unshackle one of our economy’s fastest growing sectors: outdoor recreation.

You can be forgiven for not knowing this sector is one of the nation’s most important economic drivers. Prior to 2018, the federal government failed to identify our industry in U.S. GDP calculations, which often left outdoor recreation as an afterthought in serious policy debates in Washington. That all changed in February when the Bureau of Economic Analysis released its first formal draft analysis of the outdoor recreation economy. The findings, formalized in September, were stunning.