The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will vote this week to reauthorize expired portions of the landmark 2020 Great American Outdoors Act.
The committee will mark up S. 1547, the “America the Beautiful Act,” on Wednesday. It is a straightforward bill to inject new funding into the Legacy Restoration Fund to address a lengthy backlog of repairs at the National Park Service and other public lands.
The LRF — established in the Great American Outdoors Act signed into law by President Donald Trump during his first term — has generally had bipartisan backing. The reauthorization bill, led by Sens. Steve Daines (R-Mont.) and Angus King (I-Maine), has over 60 bipartisan co-sponsors.
But Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) opposed the original 2020 outdoors law and said in January that he was concerned that “the deferred maintenance backlog has ballooned to over $23 billion due to poor management and unchecked federal land acquisitions.”
