WASHINGTON — Congress is hopeful that the popularity of U.S. national parks and other public lands can translate into bipartisan support for a deferred maintenance fund whose reauthorization expired last year.

The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on Wednesday approved a bill to reauthorize a fund providing $1.9 billion annually over the next five fiscal years to address deferred maintenance and repairs on public lands.

The measure was approved by voice vote, with members heralding it as a bright spot for bipartisanship. The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., said he hoped to get it to President Donald Trump’s desk by July 4.

Before approving the bill, the committee adopted an amendment that Daines said incorporated priorities from fellow senators as well as the Trump administration and the House. The amendment brought the funding level in line with a House bill introduced June 10 by Natural Resources Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and ranking member Jared Huffman, D-Calif.

“This amendment and the bill we’re sending to the full Senate represents a bipartisan and bicameral collaborative output,” Daines said.

The bill would reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund, which expired at the end of fiscal 2025. The fund was created to address the deferred maintenance backlog at sites operated by the National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Indian Education and other federal agencies.

That backlog is roughly $43 billion across all federal land management agencies, Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee, R-Utah, said.

The fund was established by a 2020 law known as the Great American Outdoors Act, which passed with bipartisan support in both chambers. That law also permanently funded the Land and Water Conservation Fund at $900 million per year.

Daines called that law “one of the greatest conservation wins in 50 years.”

During the markup, Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, who also is chair of the Senate Interior-Environment Appropriations Subcommittee, said she worked with her subcommittee’s ranking member Jeff Merkley, D-Ore., to push the legislation forward.

She said the requirement in the measure that the administration present a list of deferred maintenance projects the fund would be used to address ensures “that we are not establishing a venue for the administration — any administration going forward — to kind of pick and choose and inject layers of politics into what should not be political but, again, really caring for our treasures.”

Some Democrats on the panel raised concerns about a provision in the amendment that would codify the Trump administration’s nonresident fees that were instituted through an executive order last year and allocate money raised through those fees to the funds.

“If we codify this, I feel that parks could become de facto immigration checkpoints, where hardworking parks staff would be required to check passports or birth certificates, and that’s not their job,” Sen. Alex Padilla, D-Calif., said.

Padilla said he had an amendment prepared that would specify that these fees only apply to individuals on tourist visas. However, he did not call up this and other amendments, acknowledging that there was more work to be done on the bill.

Lee also said “there’s still a lot of work” to be done on the bill, pointing out that it was only partially offset.

“We all have a responsibility to ensure that legislation this size is fully paid for before it reaches the president’s desk,” he said.

He also said the bill did not include changes to how the Land and Water Conservation Fund operates that he hopes to see implemented.

A number of recreation and conservation groups, including the National Park Foundation and Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, endorsed the bill.

“Our public lands and waters depend on sustained investments in access, infrastructure, and visitor experiences,” said ORR President Jessica Turner.

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(The total deferred maintenance across federal agencies referenced by Sen. Mike Lee has been corrected.)

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