Westerman, Huffman pitch Outdoors Act revamp

The bipartisan legislation follows weeks of negotiation to reauthorize expired portions of the Great American Outdoors Act.

June 10, 2026

Leaders of the House Natural Resources Committee have come to a bipartisan compromise to revamp expired portions of the landmark 2020 Great American Outdoors Act.

Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and ranking member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) plan to introduce the “Great American Outdoors Act 250” as soon as Wednesday. The duo were collecting co-sponsors at Tuesday afternoon House votes.

Westerman cheered the bipartisan product in an interview, but stopped short of announcing an imminent timeline for a committee markup or a House floor vote. The panel will have a hearing on the legislation Friday, in Arkansas' Hot Springs National Park in Westerman's district.

“Jared Huffman and I are co-sponsoring this, so I don’t know how you can get any more bipartisan than that,” Westerman said.

“We’ve agreed to continue working through the process, and we'll still have our markup, and there's some things that aren't in the bill that we'll work on as we move forward,” he added.

The legislation is intended to revamp the Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF), a major maintenance fund for the National Park Service and other public lands established in the Great American Outdoors Act that was signed into law during President Donald Trump’s first term.

The legislation will hew closely to a discussion draft that Westerman’s office released over the weekend, which overhauls the fund by implementing new revenue sources and specific criteria for project selection.

Bipartisan negotiations in the past weeks have led to two major changes between the draft and the final bill, according to two committee aides: the removal of a blanket $20 increase to annual park passes and changes to the mechanism for providing categorical exclusions from environmental reviews for park maintenance projects.

The bill, the culmination of weeks of negotiations, would ultimately fund the Legacy Restoration Fund reauthorization through increased park entrance fees for foreign visitors.

Huffman had said early proposals included tolls on the George Washington Memorial Parkway and other parkways around the nation's capital. He called some of those GOP ideas “total nonstarters.”

Now, Huffman said he is “feeling good” about the bill that is being introduced. “We've had good, candid negotiations over the past few weeks, and I think been able to resolve some sticking points that could have complicated it. But this is where I always wanted to land — a strongly bipartisan, clean reauthorization,” Huffman said.

Pending in the Senate is S. 1547, the “America the Beautiful Act.” The slimmer bill, from Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine), would renew the 2020 maintenance program without major changes.

The bill has over 60 bipartisan co-sponsors, but its path to a vote has at times looked thorny given long-time hesitancy from Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) about the original 2020 outdoors law. Lee’s office did not respond to requests for comment.

Daines, for his part, said he remains in “active discussions” with Westerman and the Trump administration about creating a unified bill that could become law. The White House did not respond to request for comment.

“We'll work together to find one common bill for both chambers. I've been having great discussions with Chairman Westerman and with Chairman Lee and the President,” Daines said.


By:  Amelia Davidson
Source: E&E Daily