Sponsors (25)
The bill favors preserving the political neutrality of national park pass imagery—reducing the risk of perceived endorsements—at the cost of narrowing community choices for honored images and adding modest administrative work for agency staff.
National park visitors and land-management agencies will see annual pass imagery that avoids appearing to endorse living elected or political figures, preserving perceived political neutrality for visitors and agency operations.
Nonprofits, local governments, and community members will have fewer choices in the annual image competition, which can exclude popular local figures communities want to honor and reduce local engagement with the program.
Federal and state land-management agency staff will face additional administrative burden to vet image submissions for political status, increasing workload and modest compliance costs for agencies.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Prohibits the annual America the Beautiful pass image from depicting any living current or former elected official or other living political figure.
Introduced January 27, 2026 by Sarah Elfreth · Last progress January 27, 2026
Prohibits any living current or former elected official or other living political figure from appearing on the annual America the Beautiful national park pass image chosen through the public image competition. The change requires the agencies that run the pass program to exclude images that depict living political figures when selecting the yearly pass design.