Why It Matters

Since January 2025, the National Park Service has lost roughly 4,000 permanent staff or 24 percent of its full-time workforce through reductions and resignations. Meanwhile, the cost of deferred maintenance projects at America's parks has ballooned to over 35 billion dollars, and the Trump administration's budget proposals would slash construction funding to near-zero levels.

The House Natural Resources Committee's June 24 markup hearing on H.R. 9250, the Great American Outdoors Act 250, is a bipartisan attempt to reverse course. The bill would reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund, which expired in September 2025, and inject new investment into parks, public lands, and outdoor recreation infrastructure.

The Policy Stakes

H.R. 9250 would modernize and maintain the National Park Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Forest Service, and the Bureau of Indian Education. The original Great American Outdoors Act, which became law in 2020, capped the Legacy Restoration Fund at 1.9 billion dollars annually using federal energy development revenues. The new bill would reauthorize that mechanism and expand investment.

The Senate has moved in parallel. The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee advanced the America the Beautiful Act in June, which would invest 6.65 billion dollars over five years to reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund, a substantially larger commitment than the House version. Meanwhile, the Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget proposal would cap the annual NPS construction budget at less than 50 million dollars, a historic reduction that would cripple the agency's ability to address infrastructure decay.

Broad Coalition Support

H.R. 9250 has 121 total cosponsors: 60 Republicans and 61 Democrats. Over 35 members of the House Natural Resources Committee have signed on, including leadership from both parties.

Outside groups have rallied behind the measure. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce publicly backed H.R. 9250 on June 15, citing the bill's investment in national parks, public lands, outdoor recreation infrastructure, and rural communities whose economies depend on travel and tourism. Ducks Unlimited announced support on June 10. The National Wildlife Refuge Association applauded the bill's reauthorization of the Legacy Restoration Fund. The Outdoor Recreation Roundtable praised the bipartisan House action.

Hearing Details

Committee Chairman Bruce Westerman (R-AR) and ranking member Jared Huffman (D-CA) introduced H.R. 9250 on June 10. Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-MT), a former Secretary of the Interior, joined as an introducer and characterized the bill as reauthorizing and modernizing the original Great American Outdoors Act, which he called one of President Trump's signature legislative achievements from his first term.

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