Bipartisan bill to reauthorize national park maintenance fund heads to Senate floor with 64 cosponsors
Sen. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) said Wednesday that his bipartisan “America the Beautiful Act,” co-authored with Sen. Angus King (I-Maine), has passed out of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and is headed to the Senate floor.
The committee approved the bill, S. 1547, by voice vote, along with a bipartisan substitute amendment offered by Chairman Mike Lee (R-Utah) and Ranking Member Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.). The legislation would reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund, which provides close to $2 billion a year for deferred maintenance and repair projects in national parks and other federal public lands.
“The America the Beautiful Act is one of the greatest conservation wins of our time, and I’m thrilled to see it pass out of committee today with widespread bipartisan support,” Daines said. “As we look forward to America’s 250th anniversary, what better way to celebrate our national parks, the crown jewels of America, than by signing America the Beautiful into law? Let’s get it to the President’s desk.”
King, who co-chairs the committee’s National Parks Subcommittee with Daines, called the bill’s advancement “a feat that shows how Congress can work together, across party lines, to pass legislation in support of our collective national treasures.”
“People travel from across the globe to experience the natural beauty of America’s public lands,” King said. “Yet, while the national parks are America’s best idea, administrations across both parties have not provided adequate funding for deferred maintenance costs.”
Daines and King introduced the bill in May 2025. It has since gained 64 bipartisan cosponsors, up from 52 in late April and 60 in mid-May, according to Daines’s office. Daines has pushed to get the bill to the president’s desk by July 4, in line with what he has said is the administration’s budget guidance calling for reauthorization of the Legacy Restoration Fund by America’s 250th anniversary.
A companion bill, the Great American Outdoors Act 250, was introduced in the House on June 10 by Reps. Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and Jared Huffman (D-Calif.).
The bill now awaits a vote by the full Senate.