Sponsors (4)
The bill enables states to collect and pool boating-related fees to fund safety, rescue, and aquatic invasive-species work and to streamline fee administration, but it increases costs for boaters and provides little specified oversight or flexibility in how fees can be used.
Boaters and local governments gain a dedicated revenue stream that can be used for boater safety programs and search-and-rescue, improving emergency response and reducing drowning/accident risks.
Boaters and local governments can use fees to fund aquatic invasive species (AIS) mitigation, supporting healthier waterways and better recreational experiences.
State and local issuing authorities can combine collection of boating-related fees with other fees, simplifying administration and reducing duplication of effort.
Recreational boaters may face higher costs because the bill creates or preserves authority to impose boating-related fees.
The bill contains no specified caps, dollar limits, or oversight requirements for fees, raising risks of insufficient transparency and accountability in how collected funds are spent.
Restricting fee use to specified activities could limit state and local flexibility to apply revenues to related or emerging water-resource priorities not listed in the bill.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Introduced March 4, 2026 by Michael Dean Crapo · Last progress March 4, 2026
Changes federal law to clarify that State issuing authorities may collect specified recreational boating fees together with other fees and limits how state-collected fees may be spent. It explicitly ties allowable uses of those State fees to recreational boating improvements, boater safety and access, recreational use of waterways, aquatic invasive species mitigation, and related search-and-rescue or safety efforts. No funding amounts, deadlines, or new federal agencies are created.