[Congressional Bills 118th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 4451 Introduced in Senate (IS)]
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118th CONGRESS
2d Session
S. 4451
To require the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement
with the National Academy of Sciences to carry out a study on
reservation systems for Federal land.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
June 4, 2024
Mr. Padilla introduced the following bill; which was read twice and
referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To require the Secretary of the Interior to enter into an agreement
with the National Academy of Sciences to carry out a study on
reservation systems for Federal land.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.
This Act may be cited as the ``Review and Evaluation of Strategies
for Equal Reservations for Visitor Experiences Federal Land Act'' or
the ``RESERVE Federal Land Act''.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
In this Act:
(1) Booking window.--The term ``booking window'', with
respect to a reservation system, means the time period during
which a reservation or lottery entry is available to the
public.
(2) Federal land.--The term ``Federal land'' means--
(A) public lands (as defined in section 103 of the
Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976 (43
U.S.C. 1702));
(B) National Forest System land;
(C) units of the National Park System;
(D) units of the National Wildlife Refuge System;
(E) sites administered by the Bureau of
Reclamation; and
(F) sites administered by the Corps of Engineers.
(3) Recreation activity.--The term ``recreation activity''
includes camping, backpacking, climbing, fishing, hiking,
driving, and other recreational opportunities.
(4) Reservation system.--
(A) In general.--The term ``reservation system''
means any platform or method used by managers of
Federal land to ration recreation activities.
(B) Inclusions.--The term ``reservation system''
includes reservation, lottery, metering, pricing,
merit-based, and other similar rationing methods via
online, telephone, paper, in-person, or other methods.
(5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary
of the Interior.
SEC. 3. NATIONAL ACADEMY OF SCIENCES STUDY OF RESERVATION SYSTEMS FOR
RECREATION ACTIVITIES ON FEDERAL LAND.
(a) Study.--
(1) In general.--The Secretary, in coordination with the
Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Army, acting
through the Chief of Engineers, shall, not later than 60 days
after the date of enactment of this Act, enter into an
agreement with the National Academy of Sciences to carry out a
study of reservation systems for recreation activities on
Federal land.
(2) Requirements.--In carrying out the study under
paragraph (1), the National Academy of Sciences shall carry out
the following:
(A) A comprehensive review of the history of
reservation systems, such as recreation.gov, including
a review of--
(i) the studies that led to the
establishment of the applicable reservation
system;
(ii) the iterations of the applicable
reservation system over time to meet the needs
of the applicable Federal agency; and
(iii) any visitor feedback provided with
respect to the applicable reservation system.
(B) Based on available data and existing research,
answer the following questions:
(i) What are the benefits and challenges of
implementing reservation systems for visitor
management and conservation goals for Federal
land?
(ii) What data are available to understand
demand for recreation on Federal land? How can
the data be used to balance visitor management
and conservation goals?
(iii) What information is available
regarding Federal land users and reservation
system users? What information is available or
needs to be collected regarding demographics
and characteristics of successful applicants
using the reservation systems?
(iv) What best practices should guide
reservation system design, including diversity
of rationing mechanisms and booking windows,
and would promote equal access to recreation
activities? What metrics can be used to record
outcomes of reservation system design?
(v) How have fees been collected for
reservation systems over time to meet the needs
of the applicable Federal agency? How are the
revenues from fees for reservation systems
split between, and spent by, Federal land
units, Federal agencies, and third-party
contractors? How is the fee structure
disseminated to users? How could dissemination
of information with respect to the fee
structure be improved?
(vi) What are the odds of success with
respect to securing a reservation under
reservation systems? How are the odds of
success disseminated to users? How could
dissemination of information with respect to
the odds of success be improved?
(vii) How are data, including data
collected by contractors, on reservation
systems shared with Federal land managers,
researchers, and the public? How can
transparency be improved to inform the
decisionmaking of users of reservation systems?
(b) Report.--The agreement entered into under subsection (a)(1)
shall include a requirement that, not later than 18 months after the
date of enactment of this Act, the National Academy of Sciences shall
submit to the appropriate committees of Congress a report that
describes the results of the study carried out under subsection (a)(1).
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