More than 250 House lawmakers from both parties are backing legislation that would revive a Trump-era public lands restoration fund for five more years, directing as much as $1.9 billion annually toward deteriorating roads, water systems, trails, visitor facilities and other infrastructure.
By yourNEWS Media Newsroom.
WASHINGTON — A bipartisan House coalition is pushing to renew a major restoration fund created under President Donald Trump’s 2020 Great American Outdoors Act, seeking another five years of investments in national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other federal lands as billions of dollars in deferred maintenance remain unresolved.
The original Great American Outdoors Act, signed by Trump in August 2020, created the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund and authorized up to $1.9 billion annually in energy-development revenues for five fiscal years to repair aging federal infrastructure.
It also permanently provided $900 million annually for the Land and Water Conservation Fund, meaning that portion of the law did not expire when the five-year restoration authorization ended after fiscal 2025. The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service describes the original law as supporting repairs to roads, trails, visitor facilities, recreation areas, wildlife refuges, forests and Bureau of Indian Education facilities.
House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and ranking Democrat Jared Huffman of California are now leading an effort to extend and modify the restoration program through legislation known as the Great American Outdoors Act 250.
The bipartisan proposal introduced in June, H.R. 9250, would provide up to $1.9 billion annually for another five years, through fiscal 2030.
It would also redesignate the original restoration account as the America’s Legacy Restoration Fund and establish additional funding streams including private donations, onshore energy revenues and fees charged to foreign visitors using federal recreation lands.
The House Natural Resources Committee approved an amended version by voice vote June 24, clearing the measure for potential consideration by the full House.
Westerman said recently on “Just The News, No Noise” that the next major step is securing floor consideration after lawmakers return following the November midterm elections.
“In our country, where we have a hard time agreeing on a lot of things, most people support our national parks,” Westerman said. “This is a very popular piece of legislation, something President Trump supports. … It’s something we really need to come together on and do something good for our country here in the 250th year anniversary.”
“We’re seeing people that are anxious to invest in our parks,” he continued. “Not necessarily to make a big return, but to keep these parks in good shape for the future because they’re so beloved by so many Americans. It’s a great thing to be associated with if you’re helping to create more access and to make these experiences better.”
The measure has attracted one of the broadest bipartisan cosponsor lists of the current Congress. Current legislative tracking shows roughly 260 House cosponsors, divided almost evenly between Republicans and Democrats. The GovTrack cosponsor list includes lawmakers such as Michigan Democrat Debbie Dingell, Maine Democrat Jared Golden and California Democrat Jim Costa alongside a large bloc of Republicans.
More than 180 organizations nationwide also support the legislation, according to House Natural Resources Committee officials.
The coalition cuts across traditional political lines and includes hunting and fishing organizations, conservation groups, outdoor recreation companies, tourism interests, energy groups and organizations associated with public lands.
The proposed extension comes as many federal recreation sites continue to face enormous maintenance needs despite projects completed under the original law.
Supporters say the most visible problems are often basic infrastructure encountered by millions of visitors each year — deteriorating roads, failing sewer and drinking-water systems, damaged trails, aging bridges, outdated visitor centers, unusable restrooms and deteriorating employee housing.
Colorado Republican Rep. Gabe Evans said the legislation is intended to focus directly on those needs.
“These are things like visitor centers, or the trailheads, or the restrooms, or something just as simple as making sure that the water fountain works,” Evans said on “Just The News, No Noise.” “This piece of legislation that I helped to introduce, what this does is it invests $1.9 billion every year for the next five years, to be able to go and fix that infrastructure, and we know that fixing that infrastructure is incredibly important.”
House Natural Resources Committee estimates say the projects could support about 72,500 jobs and generate approximately $26.4 billion in economic activity for rural gateway communities surrounding national parks, forests, wildlife refuges and other public lands.
The bill would also codify higher fees for certain international visitors, creating another source of money for maintenance.
Under the legislation, qualifying foreign visitors would face an additional entrance or standard amenity fee of at least $100 at covered federal recreation sites. An annual America the Beautiful-style recreation pass for those visitors would cost at least $250.
Those receipts would flow into the restoration fund.
Evans has emphasized foreign tourism as one source of revenue that could help pay for infrastructure used by millions of visitors while generating broader economic activity in communities surrounding the parks.
The new measure also relies on onshore federal energy revenues. Supporters have pointed to lease activity authorized or accelerated under Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill” as another potential source of receipts for the fund.
That echoes the structure of the original 2020 law, which used federal energy revenues rather than relying entirely on yearly discretionary appropriations.
Under H.R. 9250, 70% of restoration money would go to the National Park Service. The U.S. Forest Service would receive 15%, while the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Indian Education would each receive 5%.
Westerman said that distribution is important because the program extends well beyond famous national parks such as Yellowstone, Yosemite and the Grand Canyon.
“If you like to hunt on National Wildlife Refuges, these funds help make those experiences better,” he said. “They help make hiking and camping experiences in the national forest better … We know that when people have a positive experience … you develop these expectations of what your trip’s going to be, and you want reality to exceed the expectation.”
“Unfortunately, now some of these areas are in such maintenance disarray that the expectation exceeds the actual experience,” he continued. “So we want to make sure that going forward, that the expectations that Americans have when they visit their public lands are met by reality that’s even greater than the expectation.”
Yellowstone National Park illustrates the scale of the remaining challenge.
Montana Republican Rep. Troy Downing recently toured the park with his congressional staff and met with Yellowstone officials while inspecting projects financed in part through the original restoration effort.
“I brought my staff very recently, within the last month, down to Yellowstone Park, and we met with the superintendent, and we looked at some of the projects going on,” Downing said. “The bridge they’re building over the Yellowstone River right now is an incredible upgrade to what was there before, and is something that’s going to be there for you know generations in the future.”
Yellowstone has completed or undertaken hundreds of projects connected with the Legacy Restoration Fund, according to Downing. He said roughly $115 million of approximately $8.7 billion in federal restoration funding nationally has gone to projects in Montana.
Large needs remain.
A 2025 National Park Service inventory puts Yellowstone’s deferred maintenance and repair backlog at approximately $1.2 billion.
Paved roads represent the largest category, at about $523 million. Buildings account for approximately $218 million, water systems $211 million, wastewater systems $74 million and employee housing another $67 million.
Those figures were also detailed in reporting on the park’s maintenance problems by the Daily Montanan.
Yellowstone also has roughly 398 miles of paved roads, 1,114 miles of trails, 1,461 buildings, 23 water systems, 23 wastewater systems, 21 campgrounds and more than 500 housing units to maintain.
“The numbers are big, but this investment is going to return dividends from more usage, more people spending money, not just in the parks but in the gateway communities, the states around, and coming to this country to see these jewels that we have,” Downing said. “So we need to make sure that they’re safe, presentable, and we’re dealing with all that deferred maintenance.”
The original Great American Outdoors Act was widely regarded as one of the most consequential conservation measures enacted during Trump’s first term.
It passed Congress with substantial support from both parties and was signed into law less than three months before the 2020 presidential election.
The law created an unusual political coalition because it combined conservation and recreation spending with revenues generated by oil and gas development on federal lands and waters.
The permanent Land and Water Conservation Fund authorization continues.
What lawmakers are now attempting to restore is the separate five-year Legacy Restoration Fund authority that ended after fiscal 2025.
The new legislation also includes changes intended to address concerns about the efficiency of the original program.
Sponsors say H.R. 9250 would streamline contracting and procurement, speed project reviews, impose new reporting requirements and encourage private donations.
It would not authorize acquisition of additional federal land.
Instead, supporters say the emphasis is on repairing and modernizing property the federal government already owns.
That distinction has helped produce support from lawmakers who sometimes differ sharply over federal land acquisition and environmental policy.
Westerman has portrayed the legislation as a practical infrastructure measure rather than an expansion of the federal estate.
The political coalition behind it reflects that argument.
The bill includes members from both parties and from states with very different relationships to federal land — from heavily urbanized states to western states where the federal government controls millions of acres.
Republican Rep. Mark Amodei of Nevada is among the lawmakers supporting the measure, joining representatives whose districts contain or border major national parks, forests and recreation areas.
For gateway communities, lawmakers argue the maintenance issue is also an economic one.
National parks and other public lands attract hundreds of millions of visits annually, supporting hotels, restaurants, outfitters, guide companies, stores and other businesses in surrounding communities.
Supporters contend that broken facilities, deteriorating roads or closed recreational areas can directly affect that tourism economy.
The House Natural Resources Committee estimates another five years of restoration spending could support 72,500 jobs and generate $26.4 billion in revenue for those communities.
The bill still has significant legislative ground to cover.
Although the Natural Resources Committee approved it in June, the full House has not yet voted on the measure. It would also need Senate approval before going to Trump for his signature.
Westerman says the unusual level of bipartisan support gives lawmakers an opportunity to complete that process when Congress returns after the midterms.
For supporters, the timing also carries symbolic importance as the United States celebrates its 250th anniversary in 2026.
The argument behind Great American Outdoors Act 250 is that the country should mark that anniversary not by acquiring vast amounts of additional federal land, but by repairing the parks, forests, refuges, recreation sites and Indian education facilities it already maintains.
“We’re seeing people that are anxious to invest in our parks,” Westerman said. “Not necessarily to make a big return, but to keep these parks in good shape for the future because they’re so beloved by so many Americans.”
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