Local search-and-rescue organizations could be reimbursed for their work on federal lands under a bill reintroduced by a Utah lawmaker.
The measure introduced in its latest version last week by Republican Rep. Celeste Maloy is pitched as a way to aid cash-strapped sheriff’s departments and others who respond to backcountry emergencies in national parks and forests, as well as on Bureau of Land Management properties.
Similar bills have failed in past years to find the Capitol Hill trail that leads to the president’s desk, and this year’s renewed effort could again face uphill going. But in the search-and-rescue world where high tech joins horseback and high-angle rope work, the idea sounds appealing.
“With most of our land federally managed, local sheriffs and towns are left to shoulder the costs of search-and-rescue operations without tax revenue to support them,” Maloy said, adding that the bill “ensures our first responders have the resources they need to keep up with the growing demand.”
