Why It Matters
The national park maintenance backlog has ballooned to $43 billion in 2026, up sharply from $26 billion in 2020 — a trajectory that concerns lawmakers on both sides of the aisle. Montana’s Yellowstone National Park alone carries an estimated $1.5 billion in deferred maintenance, making the America the Beautiful Act particularly significant for the state.
What Happened
The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee voted unanimously Wednesday to send the America the Beautiful Act to the full Senate. The legislation allocates nearly $10 billion toward national park infrastructure repairs and reauthorizes the Great American Outdoors Act, which Montana Republican Sen. Steve Daines originally authored in 2020.
Daines co-authored the new bill with Maine Independent Sen. Angus King. Daines’ staff worked through early morning hours — reportedly until 6:30 a.m. Wednesday — to finalize compromise language before the vote. The bill has attracted broad bipartisan support, with 64 cosponsors.
Committee Chairman Sen. Mike Lee of Utah allowed the measure to advance despite voicing unresolved concerns. “If the intended purpose of the Great American Outdoors Act was to reduce the backlog, and six years later it’s significantly larger, what should Congress do?” Lee said, signaling skepticism about whether the funding mechanism alone would solve systemic problems.
By the Numbers
The bill’s centerpiece is a Legacy Restoration Fund that would distribute up to $2 billion annually across several federal land management agencies, including the National Park Service, the U.S. Forest Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the Bureau of Indian Education.
Key figures in the legislation include:
- $43 billion — current national park maintenance backlog (up from $26 billion in 2020)
- $1.5 billion — Yellowstone National Park’s estimated deferred maintenance
- $2 billion per year — maximum annual disbursement from the Legacy Restoration Fund
- $100 — foreign visitor surcharge imposed by the Interior Department in July, revenue from which would flow into the fund under the new law
- 80 percent — share of gate fees individual parks currently retain, a figure the bill does not change
Zoom Out
The bill reflects a broader congressional effort to address deferred maintenance across federal lands — an issue that has persisted through multiple administrations. The six-year gap between the original Great American Outdoors Act and this reauthorization highlights a recurring tension: funding authorized by Congress has not kept pace with deterioration rates across the park system.
The foreign visitor surcharge provision adds a new revenue dimension. Sen. Alex Padilla of California raised concerns during committee proceedings about how park staff might be required to verify visitor nationality, saying parks could become “de facto immigration checkpoints, where hard-working Park Service staff would be required to check passports or birth certificates.” The bill’s sponsors have not publicly outlined specific verification procedures.
What’s Next
Before reaching President Donald Trump’s desk, the bill must pass a full Senate vote and then undergo reconciliation with any House version. The anticipated target for a presidential signing is July 4 — a symbolically significant date given the legislation’s focus on public lands. Whether the timeline holds will depend on how quickly the House and Senate can align on final language.
For Montana, where public lands draw millions of visitors and anchor significant portions of the regional economy, the bill’s outcome carries substantial weight — particularly for Yellowstone, one of the most visited parks in the country.