Law Enforcement Officer and Firefighter Recreation Pass Act
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReceived; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy …
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Additional sponsor: Mr. Onder
Reported from the Committee on Natural Resources with amendments
Committee on Agriculture discharged; committed to the Committee of the …
Mr. McClintock introduced the following bill; which was referred to …
Summary
What This Bill Does
The Law Enforcement Officer and Firefighter Recreation Pass Act extends free lifetime access to national parks and federal recreational lands to law enforcement officers and firefighters. Currently, only active-duty military personnel and their dependents receive free passes. This bill adds police officers, federal agents, and firefighters at all levels of government (federal, state, local, and tribal) to the list of eligible recipients.
Who Benefits and How
Law enforcement officers (including police, federal agents, sheriffs, and corrections officers) gain free lifetime access to over 400 national parks and 10,000 recreation sites managed by federal agencies. This benefit applies to officers at federal, state, local, and tribal levels.
Firefighters (including those fighting wildland fires) at all levels of government similarly receive free access to federal recreational lands and national parks. This serves as a form of recognition for their public service.
Military personnel and their dependents continue to receive the same free passes they currently enjoy, with no changes to their benefits.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal land management agencies (the Department of the Interior and its sub-agencies like the National Park Service and Bureau of Land Management) will see reduced fee revenue from the expanded free pass program. The agencies must also administer verification of eligibility for the new categories of recipients.
Taxpayers may indirectly bear costs if reduced fee revenue requires supplemental appropriations to maintain park services, though the financial impact depends on how many officers and firefighters take advantage of the benefit.
Key Provisions
- Amends the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act to add law enforcement officers and firefighters to those eligible for free National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes
- Defines "law enforcement officer" broadly to include any officer, agent, or employee at federal, state, local, or tribal level authorized to enforce criminal law or supervise offenders
- Defines "firefighter" as any government employee who performs work directly related to suppressing fires, including wildland fires
- Maintains existing free pass benefits for active-duty military and their dependents
Evidence Chain:
This summary is derived from the structured analysis below. See "Detailed Analysis" for per-title beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
Primary Purpose
This bill aims to provide free lifetime National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes for active duty military personnel, their dependents, law enforcement officers, and firefighters.
Policy Domains
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretary"
- → The Secretary of the Interior
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
Any employee of the Federal Government, a State, a unit of local government, or an Indian Tribe who performs work directly related to suppressing fires, including wildland fires.
Any officer, agent, or employee of the Federal Government, a State, a unit of local government, or an Indian Tribe authorized by law or by a government agency to engage in or supervise the prevention, detection, or investigation of any violation of criminal law or who is authorized by law to supervise sentenced criminal offenders.
A pass providing free access to national parks and federal recreational lands.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology