Panel to consider national park, recreation bills

A Natural Resources subcommittee will hear legislation to create the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park from an existing historic site.

June 30, 2026

House Natural Resources subcommittee will meet this week to discuss a slate of bills, including a proposal to create Georgia's first national park and to speed permitting for recreation projects on public lands.

The Subcommittee on Federal Lands will hold a Wednesday hearing on seven measures. They include Colorado Republican Rep. Jeff Hurd's H.R. 9248, the Recreation Permitting Improvement Act.

That proposal would add "recreation" to the list of industries eligible for a condensed National Environmental Policy Act review under a 2015 law known as the FAST Act.

The subcommittee will also discuss Georgia Republican Rep. Austin Scott and Democratic Rep. Sanford Bishop's H.R. 9416, the Ocmulgee Mounds National Park Redesignation Act.

The legislation would convert the current national historic park in Macon to the state's first national park. Georgia's senators introduced a companion bill, S. 1131, last year.

"Establishing the Ocmulgee Mounds and surrounding areas as Georgia's first National Park ... remains a top bipartisan initiative for all lawmakers and stakeholders involved," Scott said when he introduced an earlier version of the bill in 2025.

"The Ocmulgee Mounds are of invaluable cultural, communal, and economic significance to our state, and I am committed to keeping this initiative moving forward," Scott said of the area, which is the ancestral home of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation.

Also on the hearing agenda are:

  • H.R. 8454, from Rep. Tom McClintock (R-Calif.), to exchange administrative oversight of parcels of federal land between Yosemite National Park and Stanislaus National Forest to accommodate grazing cattle.
  • H.R. 7254, from Natural Resources ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), to amend the National Trails System Act to direct the secretary of the Interior to conduct a study on the feasibility of designating the Bay Area Ridge National Scenic Trail.

By:  Jennifer Yachnin
Source: E&E Daily