HR183-119

What This Bill Does

H.R. 183, the Law Enforcement Officer and Firefighter Recreation Pass Act, would amend the free annual-pass provision in16USC6804(b)(3) to add qualifying law enforcement officers and firefighters alongside Armed Forces members and their dependents. It would not create a lifetime pass for these new groups in its House-passed form. The official record checked September22,2026 shows a Senate National Parks Subcommittee hearing on July21,2026 as the latest action, with no new text after the2025 House-passed and Senate-referred versions. The bill is not enacted.

Law enforcement coverage reaches federal, state, local and Tribal officers, agents or employees authorized to prevent, detect, investigate or supervise criminal-law enforcement, or legally authorized to supervise sentenced offenders. It is not limited to uniformed patrol officers. Firefighters must be government employees performing work directly related to suppressing fires, expressly including wildland fires. Job titles alone do not qualify every EMT, private security worker, contractor, retiree or volunteer; a person must satisfy the applicable statutory definition.

Who Benefits and How

Qualifying law enforcement personnel and government-employed firefighters would avoid the cost of the annual interagency pass and covered entrance or standard amenity day-use fees. The2026 resident annual pass currently costs$80, but the bill sets no new dollar-valued payment or refund; actual savings depend on use and whether the person already has another free pass. Federal wildland firefighting employees and qualifying Tribal personnel are expressly within the government categories.

Family members traveling with a passholder may benefit under ordinary vehicle or accompanying-person pass rules. The bill does not give law enforcement or firefighter dependents their own independent statutory pass entitlement: the words covering dependents remain in the Armed Forces category. Existing military annual-pass access, veterans' and Gold Star families' lifetime passes, disability passes and senior discounts are not newly created or repealed. No specific hotel, outdoor retailer or tourism operator is awarded funding or guaranteed additional sales.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Interior and Agriculture would administer the broader free-pass population and determine adequate proof. National Park Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation and Forest Service recreation-fee programs could forgo fee receipts when newly covered people substitute free passes for paid admission or annual passes. The bill contains no offsetting appropriation or quantified revenue estimate. Foregone revenue is conditional on actual visits, other pass rights and existing revenue-sharing rules; it is not a fixed$80 loss for every eligible employee.

Applicants must provide adequate proof as determined by the responsible Secretary. For Forest Service matters that means Agriculture; for the other agencies covered by this law it means Interior. The ordinary annual pass lasts12months from issuance, not a calendar year or a lifetime. This is a pass benefit, not permission to disregard closures, capacity limits, reservations or other visitor rules. Entrance and standard amenity coverage does not automatically waive camping, special-use permits, concession charges or every other recreation expense.

The introduced bill proposed a free lifetime pass for law enforcement officers only. The House replacement instead adds firefighters, expressly retains military members and dependents in the existing annual category and specifies proof. Thus officers gain free annual access compared with current law, but receive a less durable entitlement than the original lifetime proposal. The historical lifetime language must not be presented as the current bill's benefit.

Key Provisions

• Adds qualifying government law enforcement officers and firefighters to the free annual interagency-pass category.
• Adds explicit coverage for government-employed wildland firefighters and criminal-offender supervisors meeting the definitions.
• Requires adequate proof determined by the responsible Secretary and retains Armed Forces members and their dependents in the annual-pass provision.
• Replaces the introduced lifetime law-enforcement proposal with annual passes while leaving the separate existing lifetime-pass categories unchanged.
• Preserves the existing pass's entrance and standard amenity coverage rather than creating an all-fees recreation waiver.