A landmark law and one of the country’s largest sources of funding for maintenance and repair on public lands expired last year and now, a coalition of environmental groups is pressing Congress to restore it.

Committees in both the House and Senate have passed a bill to reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund, meaning the next step would be floor votes. President Donald Trump signed the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act in 2020, which established the fund.

Rebecca Knuffke, senior U.S. conservation officer for The Pew Charitable Trusts, said the bill gives a boost to the environment and to the outdoor economy.

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"LRF has funded more than 1,600 projects across the country. And in 2025, the Great American Outdoors Act Legacy Restoration Fund was estimated to support an average of 17,000 jobs and contribute $2 billion to the U.S. economy," Knuffke outlined.

She added in 2024, 332 million visits to national parks contributed an estimated $56 billion and more than 340,000 jobs to the U.S. economy. The funds go to priority deferred maintenance projects to improve trails and infrastructure like roads, campsites and visitor centers.

Rosemarie Smallcombe, a Mariposa County supervisor whose district includes part of Yosemite National Park and gateway communities depending on tourism, said the Great American Outdoors Act funded badly needed upgrades to the sewer system in Yosemite Valley but there is still a lot more to do there.

"There's still over a billion dollars in deferred maintenance, so we really need the funding stream to be able to maintain, repair, and make those public lands attractive to future generations," Smallcombe emphasized.

The national public lands repair backlog is still estimated at more than $35 billion.