Playground Daily News. August 15, 1968. p. On July 15, 2015, Gabbard gained the Friend of the National Parks Award from the National Parks Conservation Association. Gabbard successfully passed an modification to the 2019 National Defense Authorization Act that would call for the Department of Energy to reexamine the basic safety of the Runit Dome, a leaking Cold War period nuclear waste web site in the Marshall Islands.