Sponsors (14)
The bill gives local forest units and nearby communities faster, locally controlled fee revenue to improve ski-area services and safety, but it shifts more spending reliance onto fees, reduces Treasury receipts, limits flexibility for firefighting and land purchases, and creates redistribution and oversight risks.
Local forest units and nearby communities can retain and spend most ski permit fees (generally 60–80%), giving them new, locally controlled funding for visitor facilities, trail/area maintenance, and related operations.
The Forest Service may use collected ski fees without further appropriation for four years, enabling faster repairs, staffing, permit administration, and more rapid project implementation.
Fee revenue can fund avalanche and search‑and‑rescue services, avalanche education, agency ski program administration, and recreation‑related wildfire planning and risk‑reduction, improving public safety and recreation management.
Retaining fees locally reduces amounts flowing to the general Treasury and creates a risk that agencies and communities become reliant on fee revenue instead of stable appropriations, making funding less predictable for taxpayers and federal budgeting.
Collected fees are prohibited from being used for wildfire suppression or land acquisition, limiting federal and local flexibility to respond to large fires or make strategic land purchases when those needs arise.
Redistribution rules permit diverting up to 20% (and potentially more if the local share is reduced) of collected fees away from busy collecting ski areas, which can reduce funding available to the communities that generated the revenue.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Allows the Forest Service to retain and spend ski-area permit rental charges in a new Treasury account, directing most funds back to the collecting forest unit for ski-area administration and local services, with 20% agency-wide.
Creates a new Treasury account to collect ski area permit rental charges paid under existing law and lets the Forest Service spend those fees without further appropriation. Most money (generally 80%) is directed back to the National Forest unit where it was collected to support ski-area program administration and local visitor, habitat, law enforcement, parking, avalanche/search-and-rescue, and related activities; 20% is used agency-wide. The measure bars using the account for wildfire suppression or land acquisition, requires retained fees to supplement (not replace) appropriated funds, and becomes effective 60 days after enactment.
Introduced February 6, 2025 by John A. Barrasso · Last progress February 6, 2025