Natural Resources lawmakers weigh national park access

Democrats are expected to shine a light on the president's proposed cuts to park staff and funding.

April 20, 2026

A House Natural Resources subcommittee will examine ways to improve accessibility at national parks, building on the EXPLORE ACT, a major bipartisan investment in parks and federal lands that became law last year.

The Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a session, titled "EXPLORE America250: Enhancing Accessibility at our National Parks and Public Lands." It's expected to highlight the National Park Service's efforts this year to grandly celebrate the 250th anniversary of the signing of the Declaration of Independence with events across the country. The hearing follows a January meeting that marked the EXPLORE Act's one-year anniversary.

Democrats are likely to use the meeting to again criticize Trump’s management of public lands, pointing to staffing cuts and a recent White House budget proposal that would reduce national park funding by roughly $1 billion.

The meeting this week could feature debate over reauthorizing the Great American Outdoors Act, a bipartisan law that also invests in parks and public lands. House Democrats have objected to what they describe as a proposed “slush fund” for projects favored by the president in current discussion drafts.

Passed at the president’s urging during the first Trump administration, GAOA permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund with $900 million annually for state and federal conservation from offshore oil and gas revenues, as well as devoting $1.9 billion to address park and public lands maintenance.

Today, public lands face a more than $30 billion backlog in deferred maintenance that reauthorization of the law’s Legacy Restoration Fund could help address.

Natural Resources Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) is searching for a funding source for that backlog. Among the potential options are a toll on D.C.-region parkways overseen by the park service, as well as creating a fast-pass system for visitors at high-demand national parks. Westerman has also said he’s open to codifying Trump’s $100 surcharge for nonresident visitors to some parks, launched this year.

But including tolls and fees in a Great American Outdoors Act reauthorization is already generating opposition form Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman of California.

A Senate reauthorization bill, S. 1547, sponsored by Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine), has dozens of Republican and Democratic co-sponsors, though Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) has expressed an interest in reforming the law.

This week's hearing on parks could echo the January meeting by subcommittee Chair Tom Tiffany (R-Wis.) that aimed to celebrate investments in park accessibility made possible by the EXPLORE Act. Democrats used the meeting to slam Republicans over the Trump administration's cutting of federal workers, including park rangers.

A legacy of Westerman and the late Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the EXPLORE Act created an interagency council for recreation, overhauled policies governing public land recreation, with measures to ease permitting, allow rock climbers to place fixed anchors and boost internet access, as well as mandate new long-distance bike trails.


By:  Heather Richards
Source: E&E News By POLITICO