Sponsors (20)
Designates historic U.S. Highway 66 alignments as the Route 66 National Historic Trail under NPS with limits on federal land acquisition and no eminent domain.
Official title: To amend the National Trails System Act to designate the Route 66 National Historic Trail, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 18, 2025 by Darin Lahood · Last progress September 18, 2025
The bill nationally designates Route 66 as a historic trail to boost recognition and protect private property and tribal consultation rights while limiting federal land acquisition and management authority—supporting local economic and property protections but constraining potential federal conservation tools and protections.
Homeowners and private landowners are protected from federal seizure because the government cannot use eminent domain or acquire non-federal land without owner consent.
Indigenous and tribal communities receive a formal consultation requirement before any trail activity that would have substantial direct impacts on them.
Small businesses, tourism workers, and rural communities along Route 66 gain national recognition that could boost visitation and local economic activity across the roughly 2,400-mile corridor.
Rural communities and local governments may have reduced access to stronger federal land protections, acquisitions, or funding because the trail is explicitly prevented from being treated as National Park System lands and acquisition/buffer authorities are limited.
Federal agencies and preservation efforts could be constrained, potentially slowing cohesive conservation, restoration, or land-management actions along the corridor due to limited management authority and inability to use eminent domain.
Adjacent private landowners may face unclear management boundaries and less control over activities visible or audible from the trail because no buffer zones are established.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Designates the full historic alignments of U.S. Highway 66 (c.1926–1985) from Chicago, IL, to Santa Monica, CA, as the Route 66 National Historic Trail and places the trail under management of the National Park Service. The designation includes a reference map, requires tribal consultation, and restricts federal acquisition and eminent domain while clarifying it does not create new federal permitting requirements or convert land into National Park System lands. The law limits federal authority over private lands (no forced acquisition beyond existing federal areas, average one-quarter mile corridor cap, no buffer zones) and explicitly preserves existing energy development and easement/rights-of-way authorities.