The House Resources Committee recently voted to move this permanent recreation fee legislation to the full House of Representative for a vote. Whether that will happen in the upcoming lame duck legislative session is anybody's guess. What this legislation would do, should it pass both the House and the Senate, is the subject of the analysis provided below. What follows is a plain-English translation of what this bill says, plus explanations and implications of those provisions in the legislation that may be less than obvious in their intent.
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Concise Analysis of Major Aspects of HR 3283 as approved by the House Resource Committee on September 22, 2004.
[[Explanations and implications are provided inside double brackets like this]].
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Authorizes permanent fee collection authority for the National Park Service, US Forest Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and Bureau of Reclamation.
Says fees should be commensurate with benefits and services, shall be comparable with fees charged by the private sector, may be used as a tool for the manipulation of visitor use patterns and will be responsive to the wishes of Recreation Resource Advisory Committees (RACs).
Creates four types of fees: "entrance", "standard", "expanded" and "special". Entrance fees apply only to the National Park Service and Fish and Wildlife Service.
Prohibits charging of fees solely for parking or driving, hiking, boating or riding though an undeveloped area without using facilities or services. [[This provision provides minimal protection for the public because of loopholes provided elsewhere in the bill. The horseback riding exemption was added verbally at Resources Committee markup.]]
Prohibits charging of fees for entirely primitive dispersed camping, use of scenic pullouts and for point to point travel on highways that traverse public lands. [[What appears to be a prohibition can be easily circumvented if minimal infrastructure is provided.]]
Prohibits charging fees for persons under 16 years of age, for outings conducted for noncommercial educational purposes by academic institutions, for specific sites where long existing laws have prohibited the charging of fees and for those engaged in an authorized non-recreational activity.
Authorizes charging of "Standard" fees at National Conservation Areas, National Volcanic Monuments, sites with considerable interpretive services. [[How much service must be provided is left to the Secretaries and/or the agencies. The word "considerable" is undefined. ]]
Authorizes charging of Standard fees in recreation areas where fees can be efficiently collected that include designated parking, a toilet, a trash receptacle, an interpretive sign, a table and security services . The bill also says that the area "has substantial Federal investments" [['Security services', 'substantial investments' and 'areas' are all undefined. How large are the "areas" that will be covered by these fees? ]]
Authorizes NPS and USFWS to charge "expanded" fees in addition to entrance fees "when the Secretary of the Interior determines that the visitor uses a specific or specialized facility, equipment or service." [[Once again, the crucial terms are undefined and are all subject to interpretation by the agencies.]]
Authorizes USFS, BLM and BoR to charge expanded fees in addition to standard fees for camping where the agency provides a tent space, a table, a refuse container, a fire ring and an access road. [[The low infrastructure threshold would allow dispersed recreation sites to be easily and cheaply turned into fee sites. Dispersed camping would likely require payment of both a standard and an expanded fee.]]
Authorizes USFS, BLM and BOR to charge expanded fees to launch a boat if the ramp and parking area is paved and where other facilities are provided. [[Existing boat launching areas could be easily upgraded to meet this low threshold requirement. Both standard and expanded fees could likely be charged.]]
Authorizes expanded fees for rental of cabins, boats, stock animals, binoculars, audio tour devises, historic structures, etc. [[This provides incentives for the agencies and private concessionaires to commercialize currently primitive recreational experiences.]]
Authorizes expanded fees for RV hookups, dump stations, enhances interpretive programs, reservation services, transportation services, and the use of area where "first-aid services are administered from facilities staffed by public employees or employees under contract". [[This too provides commercialization incentives . If Band-Aids were made available somewhere within the "area" would THAT allow expanded fees to be charged?]]
Authorizes expanded fees for swimming areas if the area contains a picnic area, refuse containers, paved parking and floats encompassing the swimming area. [[The low infrastructure threshold would allow basically undeveloped lakes to be easily and cheaply turned into fee sites.]]
Authorized "special" recreation permit fees for group activities, events, motorized recreation vehicle use, and other specialized uses of public lands and waters. [[This provision provides extraordinary flexibility for charging special fees. As has been the case throughout this bill, critical terms are undefined and are subject to broad interpretation.]]
Authorizes the creation of one or more Recreation Recourse Advisory Committee (RAC) in each state for the Forest Service and the BLM. RACs will deal with the implementation of fees and will meet at least annually. Their member composition is prescribed and each RAC will include a total of 11 members representative of commercial, non-commercial, motorized, non-motorized, Tribal, governmental, environmental and tourism interest. [[This section is unusually detailed and goes on for 7 pages. The RACs are designed to give certain interest groups (such as outfitters) over-representation while curtailing the representation of other interests. The RACs are rigged.]]
Authorizes the creation of, and sale of, an "America the Beautiful - the National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Pass" which shall cover the entrance fee and standard recreation fee for all lands managed by the five agencies covered under this legislation. [[This pass, whether it costs $100 or $200, will be a relative bargain for the primary interest groups which the American Recreation Coalition represents, that being full-time motorhomers. For those squatting on public lands, this pass would amortize out at pennies a day. For a recreationist using public lands once or twice each month, purchasing this pass would make no financial sense.]]
Permits vendors to sell recreation passes. Allows for the marketing of recreation passes. States that the Secretaries shall issue guidelines for price, revenue sharing, marketing, issuance of passes to volunteers, and similar matters. [[The vendors' commission does not appear to be accounted for as an expense or as a cost of doing business. If one were to pay $100 or $200 for a pass, how much of that money would go toward improving one's recreational experience, how much would go into marketing and how much would be retained by the vendors?? None of this is specified.]]
Permits the Secretaries to "enter into cooperative agreements with governmental and nongovernmental entities for the developing and implementation of the National Parks and Federal Recreation Lands Pass Program." [[This collaboration with nongovernmental entities is EXTREMELY important. This could give private/ commercial entities enormous influence over recreational access. These provisions could have large privatization implications.]]
Authorizes the creation and sale of a lifetime recreation pass to be available at a one-time cost of $10 to citizens 62 years of age or older. Authorizes the free distribution of lifetime passes to persons with specified permanent disabilities.
Authorizes the creation of site-specific passes good for not more than 12 months.
Authorizes the creation of regional multientity passes that will be accepted by one or more Federal land management agencies, or by one of more governmental or nongovernmental entities and will be valid for not more than 12 months. [[Revenues could be shared between public and private entities. It will blur the distinction between publicly provided and privately provided facilities. It will facilitate closer cooperation between the public and private sectors and will likely result in rapid commercialization and privatization of the public domain.]]
Permits the Secretaries to enter into agreements in connection with these regional multientity passes dealing with price, revenue sharing, marketing, issuance of passes to volunteers, and similar matters. [[More of the same.]]
Authorizes the Secretaries to provide a discounted or free admission day or use of Federal recreational lands and waters. [[The purpose for this provision is to ensure that no one is denied access based upon weath or income. One day a year is, apparently, considered adequate access for low income persons.]]
Authorizes cooperative fee management agreements and contracts between the Secretaries and any governmental or nongovernmental agency to provide a fee collection and processing service, including visitor reservation services, emergency medical services, the sale of passes or marketing. Permits cooperative law enforcement agreements with other governmental entities. Permits revenue sharing. Permits the Secretaries to enter into fee management agreements with counties. [[More of the same.]]
Authorizes creation of a special account for each Federal agency for the deposit of fee revenues. Monies deposited will be available for expenditure without appropriation.
Authorizes 80 percent fee-retention at the unit where collected unless percent is reduced by the Secretaries. Retention can be reduced to not less than 60 percent. The balance of the fees shall remain available to the agency that collected it. [[The 80 percent figure accounts for neither vendor fees or payments to partners nor does it not account for payments to counties. Nothing within this bill stipulates what percent of the fee paid will provide benefit to the recreating public. Fee revenues can be siphoned off in numerous ways BEFORE the so-called "80%" figure applies.]]
Authorizes creation of a special account for revenues collected from sale of America the Beautiful Passes. Monies will be distributed according to the guidelines set by the Secretaries. [[This gives the Secretaries free range to distribute pass revenues however they like. Because there will be little or no connection between the fee paid and the service received, the America the Beautiful Pass can not, under no circumstances, be considered a true "user fee".]]
Authorizes creation of regional multientity pass accounts. Money from these account will be distributed in accordance with the terms of the multientity agreement for the regional multientity pass. [[More of the same.]]
States uses for which fee money can and can not be spent. Prohibits expenditure of fee money for biological monitoring. States that the Secretary may not use more than an average of 15% of fee revenues on administration, overhead and indirect costs related to program. Provides for "Transitional Exceptions" for the first five years of the program. [[Provides five years of total unaccountability followed by near-total unaccountability thereafter. The 15% number means nothing --- it does not even specify whether this is 15% of gross or net receipts.]]
Requires the Secretaries to report to Congress every three years detailing the status of the fee program. [[Further reduces the accountability of the agencies. Agencies are currently required to report to Congress each year.]]
The program is authorized for 10 years and will sunset. [[If enacted, the program would likely never sunset. The purpose of this provision is to provide an opportunity to rework (and presumably expand upon) the program 10 years from now.]]
Authorizes the use of volunteers to collection fees and sell passes. Authorized issuance of discounted or free passes in exchange for labor. [[Appears that this provision violates existing labor laws, facilitates the outsourcing of additional federal jobs, creates a body of unpaid fee-enforcers and allows organized special interest groups who currently perform work in support of their own interests to avoid payment of fees in the future.]]
Failure to display a pass or furnish proof that a fee was paid shall constitute nonpayment. The registered owner and any occupant of a vehicle charged with nonpayment shall be jointly liable for penalties imposed under this section. Failure to pay a fee will be punishable as a Class A or B misdemeanor except in the case of a first offense. First offenses will be punished by a fine of not more than $100. [[ If you are a passenger in a car and the driver fails to pay a fee or even fails to display a pass, you can go to jail. These criminal offenses carry fines of up to $5000 plus 6 months of jail time. The provisions in this section are ridiculous beyond measure, but apparently someone must believe that without massive threats, the program will fail.]]
The remainder of the bill is largely dedicated to repealing a great many superseded authorities. [[ A great many existing laws would be altered or repealed if this legislation passes. The ramifications could be enormous, but without careful analysis of each law and how these changes will cascade through other existing laws, it is impossible to say exactly what is at stake above and beyond everything stated above.]]