S. 2438 would repeal certain provisions of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.
Detailed Summary
Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act of 2007 - Rewrites specified provisions of the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.
Provides for the application and administration of certain admission and use fee authorities under the Land and Water Conservation Act of 1965, the Emergency Wetlands Resources Act of 1986, and the National Parks Omnibus Management Act of 1998 as if the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act had not been enacted.
Status of the Legislation
Latest Major Action: 4/15/2008: Senate committee/subcommittee actions. Status: Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Date of scheduled hearing. SD-366. 10:00 a.m.
Points in Favor
S.2438 repeals most provisions of the FLREA and restores the language of the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act of 1965 regarding recreation fees.
For all agencies, fees will still be allowed at campgrounds, swimming sites and boat launches that have a defined minimum level of development, and for rental of cabins and lookouts.
Entrance Fees will be allowed for NPS units and NPS will retain fee revenue within the agency with 80% to be spent at the site where collected. NPS will no longer charge additional fees for backcountry access or interpretive programs when an entrance fee has been paid. Increases to NPS Entrance Fees will be required to be submitted to Congress 60 days before taking effect.
The $80 America the Beautiful Pass will be eliminated, and the $50 National Parks Pass and Golden Eagle Pass will be reinstated.
Forest Service and BLM will be prohibited, as they were under the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act, from charging fees, either singly or in any combination, for drinking water, wayside exhibits, roads, overlook sites, visitor centers, scenic drives, toilet facilities, or solely for the use of picnic tables.
Forest Service and BLM fee revenue will be paid, less 15% for administrative costs, to the Treasury for appropriation by Congress. This will eliminate the current system where those agencies keep all the money they can raise, which has resulted in fees being charged for parking, scenic overlooks, picnic tables, driving scenic roads, toilets, and many other basic services that should be supported with existing appropriated budgets.
SUMMARY
S.2438, The Fee Repeal and Expanded Access Act will restore language that worked well for over 30 years. It will preserve the ability of the public lands agencies to charge reasonable fees for specialized facilities and for National Park entrance. It will restore free use of basic facilities such as picnic tables and toilets and free general access to scenic trails, roads, and overlooks. It will restore Congressional oversight of the expenditure of fee revenues.
Points Against
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Visitor Comments
Peter
The Forest Service and other public land bureaucracies need to be held fully accountable to the public regarding the money they already receive before the idea of fees can even be discussed. They haven't done this, they refuse to do this. This bill needs to be passed.
frank leuthold
I've paid taxes for a lifetime and feel that using common land, our land, is part of what my good citizenship is about. No fees for public lands, please.
Ken Fischman
Our public lands are part of our common heritage. We already pay for their upkeep through our taxes. The present fee system, which was passed as a midnight rider, makes it hard for ordinary, hard working Americans to enter & enjoy their own lands. This double taxation is unfair. I support repealing these fees.
Debra Gregory-Mitchener
Unfortunately my personal experience with the local forest service is that they are so grossly mismanged that we will have to pay fees just to maintain our public lands BUT until the forest service becomes accountable for the fees they have collected and are currently collecting, fees for which we have not seen appropriate improvements, I do not feel they should be able to collect any more fees. Let them apply and borrow money from "our taxes" and then we will pay reasonable fees to repay those funds. No more promises for improvements and then no accounting for the broken promises.
Rob Sawyer
Thanks to SespeWild.org for its vigorous and unflagging efforts to return the source of funding for national and state wild areas to general tax revenues. Our common wild lands are not admission-fee amusement parks.
Barry Borella
We should never have to pay fees to walk, hike or visit on National Forest land. If teh Forest Service lacks funds, they should do what private industry does, and lay off employees.
Lanie Johnson
Not only are recreation fees unfair and annoying, it costs money to collect them! With S.2438, there is finally an opportunity to return to the previous management system in effect from 1965 to 2004.
Helen Larsen
I will be forever thankful to Alisdair Coyne and many more folks working together to defeat the Forest Fees. I am an inholder in the Los Padre National Forest,where for a while we could not enjoy our own neighborhood, but now the prohibitive signs are down, no more forest cops, and no more fees in this Santa Barbara area! Let's continue working together to restore our American birthright to enjoy undeveloped nat'l forests, BLM lands and wildlife refuges!
Eddie & Maryanne Phillips
The Fee Demo program has been a looser from the beginning, not only has the moneys been mis used by the agencies from its inseption, million dollars of this fund has been set aside to close campgrounds an recreation areas, the exact opposite of the intention of this bill.
Sharlene Roberts-Caudle
Public Lands should be as accessible to all residents of the United States as is possible. Please pass this legislation.
Mike Sturdy
It would be a much more pleasent to visit our forest without the herassment by rangers to pay. Existing fees collected are used to close roads and access not improvements. The fee program is a complete failure. Pass s 2438
Mike from Colorado
Time to give the PUBLIC lands back to the public! The creeping corporate take over of our birth-right must stop. Paying for simple access and the use of basic facilities decreases people's sense of stewardship for Public Lands. When people "pay to play" they expect others to clean up after them. The whole experience changes to responsibly using and caring for the "commons" to purchasing a pass for the theme park. Please pass this bill!
Mike from CO (corrected)
Oops - sorry for the typo in my last post. Here's what I meant to say: Time to give the PUBLIC lands back to the public! The creeping corporate take over of our birth-right must stop. Paying for simple access and the use of basic facilities decreases people's sense of stewardship for Public Lands. When people "pay to play" they expect others to clean up after them. The whole experience changes from responsibly using and caring for the "commons" to purchasing a pass for the theme park. Please pass this bill!
Roz from Colorado
I simply can't understand why the public is required to pay a $10 TOLL fee to enter the Arapaho National Forest lands and drive up Colorado State Highway 5 to the top of Mt.Evans. We've already paid our taxes once in April for our public lands and CDOT maintains the highway with their own funding!
FREE MOUNT EVANS IN COLORADO by passing this bill!
Bill Carle
A lot of money has been collected at the fee station on Mount Evans. If there have been improvements, they are difficult to see. I wonder where all the money has gone. The USFS does not plow open or maintain the road, the State of Colorado does. They do have a large fleet of large vehicles going up there every day.
Rog and Toni Hardy
The public has already paid for public land access. Pass this bill as a step toward insuring accountability for proper management.
Deborah Crossett
As a community, we need to be conscious of what our values are and how we maintain them. I have had the pleasure of hiking through miles of back country. I valued these experiences. I want my children to have these experiences. I support fee repeal and expanded access and affirm that I value access to public land and I want to pass this to future generations.
Dan Peterson
Our public lands are part of our common heritage. I valued these experiences. I want my children to have these experiences also. It would be a much more pleasent to visit our forest without the herassment by rangers to pay. We've already paid our taxes once in April for our public lands. I support this bill S2438.
Cliff McDonald
I just returned from a one day fishing trip at Lake Mohave, Arizona. $20.00 for my boat and $20.00 for my car, paid to the National Park Service. $40.00 to use a lake that is on our public lands. Where does this money go? I used Lake Mohave for free for 20 years until the NPS took over. I see no noticable change except the cost to enjoy our public water and land.
Jeff Pine
The Fee Program has absolutely nothing to do with the funding and maintaining of America’s public lands. It’s all about federal land agencies cashing in on the public’s recreational activities on their natural heritage!
This legislation to repeal the Fee Program, is long overdue! The US Forest Service is as corrupt as any government agency ever could be... and the Fee Program, especially the Adventure Pass fiasco in southern California's 4 national forests, is a blatant rip-off. The corporate lobbyists, recreation industry CEOs, politicians, and the slime balls within the USFS who implemented this illegal and unjust program should be hung out to dry, posthaste.
Gerald Hobbs
This fee is double taxation
Bill from Colorado
Public Land by its very nature belongs to the public. We already pay taxes, its that simple.
Merril from Arizona
All Public land belongs to the people. Many service personnel have fought for our freedom and the ability to enjoy all areas of the USA (forest, lakes, rivers, parks, etc).
Forest Service think they own the land and are out to accomplish one thing, collect money and harrass the public. The public should have the freedom to ride their ATV's where they like, fish next to the water edge, or do what every they would like to do with our being harrased by any forest service employee. FS should protect the land by fighting forest fires, and make new roads to allow more access in our national forests. Many FS employees think their main job is to ride around in a truck (burning up gas) looking for poor sucker to ticket. I support NO FEES for public lands, Thank you.
Brenda from Arizona
The Public Lands are just that, OURS! I support NO FEES to access our lands, rivers, lakes & to ride our ATV's where ever we want to! I support this bill S2438.
Yours Truly, An American Citizen
Richard from Roosevelt Az.
FS needs to utelize their people more wisely. The biggest persent of FS workers just drive around in an air conditioned truck wanting to play law enforcement. The ticket pads should be removed from all FS workers and a rake put in their hand, so they can be productive.
Az. is a wide open state and the public should be able to enjoy all recreational with out a charge.
Side note ; Az. needs to plow new trails for 4x4's and ATV's. "open up the national forests"
I support bill S-2438
Glinda from Roosevelt Az.
After having friends fined $100 for sitting on the shoreline of Roosevelt to let their grandchild play in the water, I absolutely think it has gone too far. What a travesty on the American public to have an agency claim a right to all our public lands and demand we now pay to enjoy the great outdoors that many people gave their lives to protect, it's just an outrage. Absolutely repeal this RAT. I also think whatever idiots supported this bill should have to pay every fine back to the American public.
Myles in Arizona
A woman who stopped to look at our lake one day was told by a forest officer, "Either you pay or Leave!" Two sisters wanted to picnic not too long ago and were told, "You have to leave, you have no right to be here." Forest service or Bureau of Land Management does not own the land, we do. Our government needs to stop doing things to us and start doing things for us, we are their bosses.
You can help, write letters to your Congressmen. Ask your Sentators to co-sign on this bill. Ask your representatives to work up a House of Representatives companion bill.
Every time you buy a pass you are voting for the fee program. The longer you stay silent the more they thing you approve of what they are doing.
Get involved! Please!
Joy
We in California are not happy with impending fees where the locals are disregarded and our rights are being violated. We, too, are contacting our reps in D. C. and fighting as best we can locally. Pass the word.
Myles
We all need to stay informed about what the Recreation Resource Advisory Councils, in each of our States, have on their slated agendas. Such as here in Arizona: The regular quarterly RRAC meeting is due in September and all of the items posted on the tenative agenda have to do with increasing fees or starting new fees. One forest in particular is proposing a New Special Recreation Permit for Off Highway Vehicles. The Arizona State Legislature recently passed a law establishing an off highway vehicle sticker program that will cost around $20 a year to take those types of vehicle off roads. If the forest service gets their permit approved it will cost off road enthusiasts twice for off road travel.
When is this "user fees disease" going to stop?
Knowledge and Unity are very powerful tools to keep our Freedom!
Sharon Carter from Roosevelt, AZ.
We are retired. We spend time picking up trash around the campgrounds at Roosevelt Lake that the FS doesn't bother to pick up with the fees that are being collected from us as owners of the land in the first place. We the people take excellent care of our public lands, so butt out FS, no more fees and let us manage our land properly and use it properly.
Gene Carter,Roosevelt, AZ
I am retired and worked hard all my life. Now with all the fees, I can't use the lakes and the campgrounds like I would like too. The public lands are ours and we pick up trash around the Roosevelt Lake and camp grounds to show our respect for this land of ours. The water is too high and we can't get down to the lake so we use the boat ramps which is a no no. Please drop the fees, and open all the roads that were opened by our land mangement years ago in the first place so we can enjoy what God has given to us. My friend got charged $100.00 for picking up trash around the lake and putting it in the dumsters. Someone got his licience number and turned him in to you and he was fined. Nice going FS, you should have thanked him instead of fineing him. He was moving and didn't dispute the charge. I am waiting for someone to turn us in and I won't stay silent.
Kate from California
In our forest, the Sequoia National Forest, the Forest Service will not provide a reporting of the recreation fees collected. They do not put the funds back into the areas that they collect them. They do not report them as REA funds with the Treasury as required by the FLREA law. Furthermore, the Forest Service is making up terms, like H.I.R.A., not found in FLREA, to justify fees in otherwise prohibited areas. Our valley has collected over 2000 signatures on this issue and sent them to our D.C. Congresspeople. Our valley held a comprehensive town hall to discuss the issue. You would find many of your same sentiments posed to our Forest Supervisor Tina Terrell. The public Question and Answer session backs up everything I have stated above and allows for an opportunity to hear how the Forest Service justifies the abuse of FLREA fees. We speak up but the Forest Service ignores our wishes. Listen to the meeting if you wish at: http://katedevries.blogspot.com/ Please pass this bill!
Ed Hansen
I am so sick and tired of liberal bureaucrats trying to lock out the public from free use of public lands. There seems to be no accountability or justification for the additional fees collected and every additional fee program is an infringement upon taxpayer rights to use public lands. I also note many times the fact that Forrest Service and BLM personnel use public lands for their own personal use and their family and friends. Many of these personnel also misuse their positions and their authority to further political agendas not related to their official office. I believe that the Government should be prohibited from defending these officials in lawsuits where misuse of authority is evident. We need to give our lands back to the people.
Jeff in CO
Ed Hansen, It was conservative republicans in the senate and congress who started the fee program, and continue to foist it on an unwilling public.
VG in AZ
Follow through, take Action. Write your letters to your Congressmen.
Giving the Public Lands Management Agencies fee charging authority is just like giving the kids the keys to the car and a case of whiskey.
Craig Williams
Time for another "Tea party",
it has been a couple hundred years since the last one !
JOHN
Itis against the law for the Forest Service to charge fees for the use of public lands.
Bobby Bettis
It is time to give our land back to us. I am for catching the guilty and not punishing everyone for the crimes of a few.