House makes bipartisan effort to renew Trump's Great American Outdoors Act, restore national parks

Members of Congress are engaged in a bipartisan effort to renew President Donald Trump's legacy "Great American Outdoors Act" to help restore national parks and historic sites, with funding having expired roughly a year ago. 

The initial bill, passed and signed into law in 2020, is considered one of the most significant conservation laws in decades and permanently mandated $900 million in annual funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund and created the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund. 

In total, the law allocated up to $1.9 billion a year through fiscal 2025 to tackle a multi-billion-dollar backlog in deferred maintenance by repairing crumbling roads, outdated water systems, trails, and facilities managed by the National Park Service, U.S. Forest Service, Bureau of Indian Education, and other American land agencies.

Great American Outdoors Act 250: 

The new legislation, introduced by Arkansas GOP Rep. Bruce Westerman, seeks to build on the 2020 legislation by extending the $1.9 billion order for another five years, but it also has new funding mechanisms, such as a foreign visitor fee and lease sales that have already taken place under the "One Big Beautiful Bill."

Westerman recently on the "Just The News, No Noise" TV show pointed out the large bipartisan support for the legislation and said it's now a matter of putting the legislation up for a vote when the House returns after the midterms. 

The legislation advanced in June when it was approved by the House Committee on Natural Resources, of which Westerman is the chairman.

"In our country, where we have a hard time agreeing on a lot of things, most people support our national parks," Westerman also said last week. "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 lawmaker said the legislation has over 250 cosponsors and is supported by more than 180 organizations nationwide.

The website Govtrack.us shows a total 260 cosponsors – 130 Republicans and 131 Democrats including Debbie Dingell, of Michigan; Jared Golden, of Maine, and Jim Costa, of California. 

Westerman also emphasized that the legislation stretches beyond the national park system to include 15% of the budget to the United States Forest Service, 5% to U.S. Fish and Wildlife and 5% to the Bureau of Indian Education.

"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."

Fixing the infrastructure: 

Colorado GOP Rep. Gabe Evans emphasized the legislation's role in addressing the maintenance backlog at national parks and highlighted the parks' role in the American economy and the economy of the local communities surrounding and supporting the parks.

"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," he said on last week's "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."

Evans also said the legislation through the infrastructure repairs is expected to bring in $26 billion in revenue for the parks, the majority of which will come from the foreign tourists who visit national parks.

Montana Republican Rep. Troy Downing said one of the top priorities for infrastructure repairs is Yellowstone National Park, where crews are working to construct a bridge over the Yellowstone River.

"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," he 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."

Downing said Yellowstone has done roughly 400 projects through the Legacy Restoration Fund and that about $115 million of the $8.7 billion in federal funding through the legislation has gone to Montana.

Yellowstone itself needs $523 million for paved roads, $218 million for housing, $211 million for water systems and $74 million for sewerage, a 2025 federal inventory shows, according to the Daily Montanan.

"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."

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.