The Senate will convene today at 3 and at 5:30 p.m. to begin votes on the Great American Outdoors Act.

The bill has won widespread support as a way to address the deferred maintenance backlog across the federal land management agencies and to provide permanent funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

But the National Cattlemen’s Beef Association, the American Sheep Industry Association and the Public Lands Council and affiliate state organizations wrote congressional leaders last week that they oppose it.

“As introduced, the GAO Act, and every other bill that preceded it that contained similar provisions, is an irresponsible way to fix a very real problem,” the groups wrote.

“Currently, land management agencies like the U.S. Forest Service, National Park Service, and Bureau of Land Management face staggering backlogs of much-needed maintenance. … If passed, the GAO Act sentences hundreds of millions of acres of American land and water to a poorly-managed future,” the groups wrote.