Sponsors (2)
The bill increases flexibility to move recreation fee revenue within civil works projects—potentially improving facilities and supporting partners—but risks disconnecting fee payers from site-specific benefits and reducing public transparency.
Visitors and local recreation users across a civil works project may see better-maintained or enhanced facilities because fees collected at any site can be used to fund maintenance or improvements at other sites within the same project.
Non‑Federal partners and private nonprofits can receive more flexible funding to support recreation operations and programming within a civil works project, helping sustain services and local programming.
Visitors who pay fees at a specific site may not see those fees used to improve that same site if funds are redirected elsewhere within the project, weakening the link between who pays and who benefits.
Allowing broader transfers of fee revenue could reduce transparency and make it harder for the public to track how user fees are collected and spent.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Permits visitor-reservation fees collected at a civil works project to be used at any recreation site or facility located on that same civil works project rather than only the site where collected.
Official title: To amend the Water Resources Development Act of 1992 with respect to the authorized use of certain user fees collected for recreation sites, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 16, 2025 by Andrew S. Clyde · Last progress July 16, 2025
Changes federal law so that visitor-reservation fees collected at a U.S. Army Corps of Engineers civil works project can be used at any recreation site or facility located on that same civil works project, not just the specific site where the fee was paid. The change clarifies and broadens how transferred user-fee revenue may be spent within a single civil works project.