Why It Matters: America’s federal public lands face a significant headwind of deferred infrastructure maintenance (roads, bridges, trails, campgrounds, etc.), which can ultimately limit access for sportsmen and women. This legislation will help provide federal land agencies much-needed financial resources to turn the corner on deferred maintenance.
Highlights:
- Last week, Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus (CSC) Member Senator Steve Daines and CSC Co-Chair Senator Angus King reintroduced the America the Beautiful Act, a bipartisan bill to help restore degraded infrastructure across our public lands.
- In 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act, which was strongly supported by the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation (CSF), was signed into law to provide permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund as well as $9.5 billion over 5 years to address the deferred maintenance backlog on federal public lands.
- This legislation builds upon the Great American Outdoors Act by reauthorizing a critical component of the 2020 bill.
On Thursday, May 1, Congressional Sportsmen’s Caucus Member Senator Steve Daines and CSC Co-Chair Senator Angus King reintroduced the America the Beautiful Act, a top priority for the Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation.
Specifically, this legislation will provide $10 billion over five years while also making improvements to the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF), the section of the Great American Outdoors Act that sought to restore infrastructure on federal public lands. Since 2020, LRF has been instrumental in addressing the maintenance backlog across federal public lands to ensure these lands remain accessible for sportsmen and women and other outdoor enthusiasts.
While the National Park Service (where access is often limited to fishing only), faces the largest backlog of $23.3 billion, other federal lands that provide critical access for sportsmen and women, such as the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service also face a collective maintenance backlog of roughly $17 billion dollars. The reauthorization of the LRF will help address the backlog challenges facing our public land managers.
The Congressional Sportsmen’s Foundation looks forward to working Senators Daines and King to see the America the Beautiful Act become law in the 119th Congress.