U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, said he will host a field hearing in Hot Springs during the second week in June to collect testimony for the Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan bill passed in 2020 to shore up funding for the massive backlog of deferred maintenance on federal lands and parks.

Westerman, who is chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, will be guiding the legislation through the reauthorization process. He said he hopes the field hearing in Arkansas will showcase the beauty of The Natural State.

“I think it will focus a lot of attention on our national parks and highlight Hot Springs National Park in that field hearing,” he said in an interview with The Glenwood Herald.

Congress is on recess and Westerman is traveling the Fourth Congressional District to meet with constituents on a variety of issues. In his interview, he touched on recently-passed funding for transportation projects – including highways, bridges, railways and waterways – through the multi-billion dollar Surface Transportation Reauthorization Act.

“The Fourth District of Arkansas has more short line railroads than any other district in the country,” he said. “There’s a program called CRISI grants [Consolidated Rail Infrastructure and Safety Improvements] that are used to update rail structures and that is included in that surface transportation bill. I’m glad I’m on the committee and got an opportunity to be part of the markup.”

He emphasized that the transportation funding also included money to help the nation’s truckers.

“We put the requirement on truckers where they have to use these electronic logging devices, so that’s to keep them from driving over a certain number of hours and creating a safety hazard. As a result of that, you have truckers that need to pull over and stop and be off the clock, you know, presumably sleeping, and the problem is they don’t have places to park,”said Westerman. “If you’ve noticed any of the roadside rest areas, you’ll see trucks parked all over at those and just across the country, there’s just not enough room for these trucks. So we got money in there to expand truck parking.”

Westerman also noted that he has asked for appropriations for more I-49 funding to connect Texarkana and Fort Smith in western Arkansas. He has asked for nearly $10 million in funding in appropriations for the Port of Pine Bluff, which he says is crucial to moving more goods efficiently in the worldwide supply chain.

The Fourth District Republican Congressman, who is facing Democrat James “Rus” Russell in November, also discussed the war in Iran. He contends he does not have the level of briefing that the president and certain members of Congress have. The Gang of Eight, which is a bipartisan group of senators and representatives are briefed regularly on foreign affairs, military and intelligence issues. U.S. Senator Tom Cotton, R-Ark., and U.S. Rep. Rick Crawford, R-Jonesboro, are on this influential panel.

Westerman said he wants a solution in Iran, but will wait to see the recommendations from those with more knowledge on the situation.

“It’s easy to armchair quarterback when you don’t really know everything that’s going on,” he said. “I think you also have to be patient in these situations and you have to make sure you’re making statements and decisions based on the best information that’s out there. Because of the nature of the intelligence community and military operations, not everybody’s getting the latest information, like the president and his military advisors are.”

The depletion of U.S. artillery and weapons is likely to be an economic boost to Westerman’s south Arkansas Congressional district. The military industrial park in East Camden (Calhoun County) is home to several defense and aerospace contractors who make missile equipment being deployed in Iran. The Pine Bluff Arsenal (Jefferson County) is also gearing up to be a larger player in supplying the nation’s defense.

“If you look at the munitions that have been depleted – the tomahawk missiles, the patriot system and the high altitude defense system – all or parts of all of that are built in Camden. So, the workload for Camden is going to expand as we replenish these munitions,” he said.