Sponsors (4)
Permits States to collect and bundle boating-related fees and restricts fee uses to boating safety, access, recreation, and aquatic invasive-species mitigation.
The bill enables states to raise and bundle user fees to fund boating infrastructure, safety, and invasive-species work—improving waterways and services—but shifts more direct costs to users and can concentrate burdens on low-income boaters while narrowing how fee revenue may be used.
Recreational boaters and local communities will gain improved recreational boating infrastructure and safety programs because state and local authorities can use collected user fees to build/maintain facilities and fund safety initiatives.
Rural and recreation-dependent communities will get more resources to prevent and respond to aquatic invasive species because fee revenue can be directed to mitigation and monitoring programs that protect waterways and fisheries.
Boaters and issuing authorities will have simpler transactions and lower administrative friction because the bill allows bundling/collection of multiple fees together.
Recreational boaters — particularly low-income individuals and owners of small boats — may face higher out-of-pocket costs if states impose or bundle new fees, creating an uneven affordability burden and potentially reducing equitable access to waterways.
State and local governments could lose flexibility to respond to other maritime needs or emergencies because the law restricts the allowable uses of collected fees to specified activities.
Higher or poorly designed fees could reduce public use of boating facilities and local recreation economies if cost-sensitive users opt out, harming businesses and communities that depend on recreation spending.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Official title: Allow States to require payment of State fees related to boating as a condition for issuance of a vessel number and to collect such fees in conjunction with other fees related to vessel numbering.
Introduced March 4, 2026 by Michael Dean Crapo · Last progress March 4, 2026
Authorizes States to collect certain boating-related fees and clarifies how those fees may be used. The law revises 46 U.S.C. § 12307 to allow state issuing authorities to bundle and collect specified fees, and it limits those fees’ permitted uses to activities that improve recreational boating, boater safety and access, recreational use of waterways, and aquatic invasive species mitigation.