Sponsors (67)
Official title: Amend title 54, United States Code, to reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund, and for other purposes.
Introduced May 1, 2025 by Steve Daines · Last progress May 1, 2025
The bill increases and prioritizes funding and revenue flexibility for park and public-land maintenance—speeding repairs and directing new income to restoration—while raising environmental review risks, adding costs and complexity for some users and vendors, and concentrating certain spending decisions and licensing authority within DOI.
Visitors, local communities, and park units will receive prioritized, dedicated funding for deferred maintenance and restoration, reducing closures, safety risks, and degraded visitor facilities.
Covered land-management agencies (FWS, Forest Service, BLM) will get predictable minimum allocation shares (e.g., FWS 65%, Forest Service 32%, BLM 15%), improving multi-year planning to address backlog projects.
Park visitors and employees will see higher-priority attention to projects that pose imminent public health or safety risks, lowering acute hazards at recreation sites.
Park users, local communities, and culturally or environmentally sensitive areas face higher risk because broad categorical exclusions and expedited NEPA procedures reduce environmental and cultural review, increasing chances of overlooked impacts.
Taxpayers and local governments may receive less overall funding for restoration because the bill narrows deposit sources to certain 'Federal onshore land' receipts and changes the deposit window, potentially reducing total receipts compared with broader prior definitions.
Non-U.S. visitors will pay an added surcharge on top of existing entrance fees, increasing international travel costs and likely reducing overseas visitation and spending at parkside businesses.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Reworks the Legacy Restoration Fund rules and allocations, permits a temporary nonresident visitor surcharge at fee‑charging park units, and authorizes DOI intellectual‑property licensing with retained fees.
Makes targeted changes to how National Park and public‑land restoration money is collected and spent, lets the Interior Department charge a temporary surcharge on nonresident visitors at units that charge entrance fees, and allows the Department to license its intellectual property and keep licensing fees to cover costs and support park restoration. It adjusts definitions and allocation rules for the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund, shifts deposit years and deposit sources, and sets limits and priorities for how Fund money is distributed among agencies for deferred‑maintenance projects.