Sponsors (3)
Authorizes surcharges on international visitors to national parks and on America the Beautiful pass sales to international visitors, with proceeds for park maintenance and restoration.
The bill gives parks more locally controlled revenue and boosts a national restoration fund to improve maintenance and projects, but does so by raising and varying fees (and adding collection complexity), which could deter some visitors and unevenly shift costs onto tourists and local communities.
National Park units (parks and superintendents) will retain surcharge revenue at the collecting unit, giving them more money for maintenance, visitor services, and staffing to address local needs.
National parks (all units) will receive additional deposits into the Legacy Restoration Fund from pass surcharges, increasing funding for nationwide park restoration and capital projects.
International visitors and travel vendors will have an easier payment process because authorized third-party vendors can collect surcharges, which should improve compliance and convenience for visitors paying remotely or abroad.
International visitors and tourism-dependent communities will face higher entry costs because surcharges increase overall fees, which could reduce international visitation and harm local businesses in rural or tourism-reliant areas.
National-park-visitors and taxpayers may face uneven fee burdens because Secretary-set minimums and exemptions can produce disparate prices across parks and raise concerns about discretionary fee increases without direct congressional review.
Travel vendors and the Department of the Interior will incur added administrative complexity because third-party surcharge collection and tiered/locally-set pricing require new systems and oversight, which could raise costs passed on to visitors.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Official title: To amend the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to collect a surcharge from international visitors to units of the National Park System, and for other purposes.
Introduced July 22, 2025 by Riley M. Moore · Last progress July 22, 2025
Creates authority for National Park superintendents to charge an additional entrance surcharge specifically on international visitors and to charge a surcharge on sales of the America the Beautiful pass to international visitors. Collected surcharge revenue is retained for the park unit that collected it (for entrance surcharges) or deposited into the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (for pass surcharges) to support maintenance, visitor services, staffing, and related needs. The bill defines “international visitor,” sets collection and proportionality rules, allows use of third-party collection, and lists a few narrow exceptions.