Our leaders in action.

U.S. Representative Steny Hoyer's remarks at a recent breakfast gathering organized by the Maryland Park and Recreation Association carry a simple but instructive message. "Members of Congress are pulled in seventy-five different directions every day," the Maryland legislator and chair of the House democratic caucus said. "Your job is to keep me focused."

That was precisely the objective of the event, and it was heartening to see nearly sixty association members, members of Congress and their staff get acquainted personally and with the issues bearing on our field. Trustees Connie Romanello, Alice Conkey and Joe O'Neill were instrumental in pulling the event together.

Events like this, in Washington and in congressional districts, are critical to communications, agenda building, and access to legislators and key staff. They are an important step in establishing long-term rapport. They provide an opportunity, too, for our national association to learn first hand of state and local issues in parks and recreation, and to share perspectives on potential congressional responses.

The breakfast event, for example, was followed immediately by an impromptu meeting of a county park and recreation director, citizen-board members and NRPA public policy staff with Representative Wayne Gilchrest (R, MD-1). The director and citizens updated the legislator on specific land conservation projects in his district, and NRPA advised on the need for appropriations from the Land and Water Conservation Fund and other possible strategies to conserve land.

The rapport created by a pattern of continuing contact with a key legislator was also evident when Perry Segura, a trustee and strong public recreation advocate in New Iberia, Louisiana, represented the Association recently before the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. The hearing, on a bill to advance appropriate $1 billion annually from the Land and Water Conservation fund for the next 5 years, was an important opportunity to draw on his political and personal connection to the committee's chairman. And it resulted in a private meeting with the senator after the hearing to discuss our role in a strategy to advance a bill critical to capital investment in parks and recreation. (See Washington Scene.)

Advancing issues and relevant bills, of course, was exactly what Hoyer had in mind. It was Hoyer, for example, who took definitive action in 1991 to conserve over 8,000 acres of forest and wetland as Ft. George Meade was becoming excess to national defense needs. Maryland's citizen advocates and professionals and NRPA were among the first to call for the setting aside of these "green lungs" for the Baltimore

Washington region, reference used by U.S. Senator Paul Sarbanes (D-MD) to define a value of Ft. Meade's conservation and recreation use.

Passing legislation to enhance the recreation and park estate and public opportunities, and then funding it, is the objective, too, of our involvement in events like Maryland's briefing on Capital Hill, and for involving citizen advocates in national public settings. But they are part of a broader strategy. Johnston's bill, S.721, for example, comes at a critical but challenging time--when legislators may gain greater political payback for cutting budgets rather than for spending, however necessary. But that's why Johnston's bill is needed now, and why every state organization and NRPA members should be urging their senators to join on as co-sponsors.

The Maryland Park and Recreation Association's initiative is not unique. Other affiliates and regions organize similar events in the context of our mid-year forum, and at other times. Yet this event, its timing, its content and its potential results comes at a time when park and recreation needs and values are even more important, and when the Congress needs to focus.