Participate in the biennial Federal & State Legislative Priorities Survey by Sunday, June 5. Five minutes of your time today will become two years' worth of policy progress on issues that directly affect your bottom line.
Previously, ASLA has used the data gathered in this survey to set our members up for success. In 2021, the landmark Bipartisan Infrastructure Law incorporates 13 of ASLA's recommendations on transportation, water, and natural resources. At the state level, progress on licensure defense and climate resilience initiatives help amplify the profession's voice on key policy issues throughout the country.
The paths to ASLA's various legislative victories converge at one origin - our membership. Now, the direction in which ASLA forges ahead is once again up to you. Take the survey today and remind your fellow ASLA members to do so as well.
Over 50 applications were received for the Women of Color Licensure Advancement Program (WCLAP). In April, the WCLAP jury selected the 10 awardees, which will be publicly announced in the May 31st edition of LAND. The WCLAP aims to support women of color in their pursuit of landscape architecture licensure and increase racial and gender diversity within the profession.
As of Monday, May 18, twenty-one states remain in legislative session. Staff is tracking 197 occupational licensing bills. The state government affairs team continues to work closely with chapters on legislative advocacy initiatives, including submitting public comments for the proposed rules for the implementation of the Illinois Title Act.
The Alliance for Responsible Professional Licensing (ARPL) recently developed a new Fact Check Resource to set the record straight on the various myths and purported problems that anti-licensure individuals contend can only be solved by drastically weakening or outright eliminating licensing. ARPL also recently announced the results of a state-wide survey of Louisiana voters showing voters are deeply concerned about anti-licensing proposals being discussed in Baton Rouge during this legislative session. The results showed widespread public support for maintaining rigorous professional licensing standards for professions that have a clear impact on public health, safety, and welfare.
ASLA is leveraging the iAdvocate Network to mobilize members to vote in state primary elections. As of this week, the following states have been alerted: Indiana, Ohio, Nebraska, Kentucky, West Virginia, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Idaho, Alabama, Georgia, California, Iowa, Mississippi, Montana, New Jersey, New Mexico, and South Dakota. States are alerted in the order of respective primary election dates. States receive comprehensive voting alerts, which include links to voter registration forms, polling locations, and full candidate lists. Voting is a habit-forming process, and the more landscape architects exercise this civic right, the more likely it is that public policies will serve the profession's best interests.
During the spring Board of Trustees meeting the Public Participation public policy, now titled Community & Stakeholder Engagement, was unanimously approved as amended. The amended public policy states that ASLA believes "public decision-making processes should be open, accessible, and participatory." The policy also affirms that we support active and intentional engagement in all phases of projects. Because we, as an organization, believe engagement helps to build consensus, trust, and shared decision-making; solicit and reflect community input and feedback; and guide design decisions.
Thanks to Congress' bipartisan efforts, passage of the Dingell Act and the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) means that the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) is permanently authorized and will receive $900M in dedicated funds. However, it is still up to Congress to decide how that money is allocated among LWCF subprograms in the annual appropriations process. ASLA contacted all members of Congress to urge them to support a balanced approach to funding LWCF, including funding for LWCF federal lands projects and funding for the "state-side" program, which funds local community parks and recreation projects. ASLA and other LWCF Coalition member groups convinced 194 legislators in the House of Representatives to support this approach to funding LWCF.
Recently, ASLA met with a team at the Federal Highway Administration (FHWA) to continue efforts to identify policy and design solutions to creating more Complete Streets projects across the nation. Landscape architects Peg Staehli, ASLA, and Wendy Miller, FASLA provided comments and recommendations to FHWA's Complete Streets review documents, with the goal of surveying all state Departments of Transportation on their Complete Streets policies and design guides. In March, FHWA kicked off its Complete Streets campaign with the release of Moving to a Complete Streets Design Model: A Report to Congress on Opportunities and Challenge. ASLA's contributions are recognized in the report.
Federal Government Affairs Director Roxanne Blackwell, Hon. ASLA participated in the Landscape Architecture Foundation's Grounding The Green New Deal: A Summit on Design, Policy, and Advocacy, where she spoke on a panel about using advocacy to take steps to address decarbonization, create jobs, and promote equity.
Throughout the spring, the Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Kentucky, Maryland, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Vermont and Washington Chapters worked with their governors, legislatures, and mayors to declare April as Landscape Architecture Month and/or April 26 to be Frederick Law Olmsted Day. These proclamations help to educate the public on landscape architecture's technical substance and public significance. They also serve as a reminder of the impact that design choices invariably have on community, opportunity, resilience, and equity.
