Sponsors (10)
The bill increases local control and faster access to ski-area fee revenue for facilities, services, and some systemwide safety priorities, but does so by routing fees outside the annual appropriations process and by restricting certain wildfire and land uses—trading congressional oversight and some firefighting/fuels flexibility for local fiscal flexibility and operational speed.
Local governments, rural communities, and nonprofits at national forest ski areas can keep and spend most locally collected ski-area fees (80%) to maintain visitor facilities, safety, and services, enabling more reliable local facility upkeep and visitor services.
State and local governments (and Forest Service managers) gain faster, more flexible access to fee revenues because funds are available without annual appropriation and remain available for multiple fiscal years, supporting seasonal needs and multi-year planning.
Visitors, local governments, and nonprofits benefit system-wide because an agency-wide 20% distribution supports broader priorities (training, avalanche information, search-and-rescue) beyond the collecting unit.
Taxpayers and state/local governments face reduced congressional oversight and lower Treasury receipts because directing fees to a special account effectively bypasses the normal annual appropriations process.
Local governments and rural communities may be left without flexible funding for urgent wildfire suppression or land acquisition because the law prohibits using these retained fees for those purposes, reducing response flexibility.
Rural communities and local governments risk losing locally collected fee revenue when a covered unit lacks eligible projects because remaining funds flow agency-wide, potentially diverting money away from the communities where it was raised.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by Joseph Neguse · Last progress February 6, 2025
Creates a dedicated Treasury account to hold ski-area permit rental charges collected on National Forest System ski areas and allows the Forest Service to spend those fees without further appropriation for certain local and agency-wide activities. Most funds (80%) are spent at the unit that collected them (with a required split between two activity categories), 20% are available agency-wide, and the local share may be reduced to no less than 60% if not needed. Funds may be used for specified ski-area program administration, visitor services, direct fee-collection costs, staff training, wildfire planning and risk-reduction (but not suppression or hazardous fuels reduction), and a set of visitor-access, safety, habitat, law enforcement, parking, permit administration, avalanche, and search-and-rescue activities; the account cannot be used to buy land for the National Forest System. The rule preserves existing cost-recovery authority and requires retained fees to supplement, not replace, appropriations. The provision takes effect 60 days after enactment.