MAPWaters Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The MAPWaters Act of 2025 (Modernizing Access to our Public Waters Act) requires the Secretary of Agriculture and the Secretary of the Interior to standardize and publicly publish geospatial data about federal waterway access, restrictions, and fishing regulations. Within 30 months, the agencies must develop interagency data standards. Within 5 years, they must digitize and publish GIS data covering waterway restrictions, access points (boat ramps, fishing sites), and fishing regulations.
Who Benefits and How
Recreational boaters, anglers, and outdoor enthusiasts gain consolidated, publicly accessible information about where they can boat, fish, swim, and recreate on federal waterways, including details on restrictions, seasonal closures, and facility locations.
Outdoor recreation and tourism businesses benefit from improved public information that may increase visitation and participation in water-based recreational activities.
Technology and geospatial data companies gain new business opportunities through authorized partnerships with federal agencies to help implement data collection, standardization, and publication requirements.
State and Tribal natural resource agencies gain access to standardized federal data and opportunities for formal coordination and partnership.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Federal land and water management agencies (Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service) bear significant compliance burdens including digitizing existing data, developing new data standards, publishing GIS data online, and submitting annual progress reports to Congress through 2034.
Federal taxpayers bear the costs of implementation, including data digitization, technology infrastructure, and ongoing data maintenance.
Key Provisions
- Requires Interior and Agriculture to create interagency data standards for federal waterway access and restriction information.
- Directs federal land and water management agencies to digitize and publish GIS data for access points, fishing restrictions, and waterway-use limits.
- Authorizes partnerships with state, tribal, private-sector, technology, and geospatial entities to improve public data publication.
- Requires annual progress reports to congressional committees through March 2034.
- Protects sensitive archaeological, historical, and paleontological location data from public disclosure.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Requires federal land and water management agencies to standardize, digitize, and publicly publish geospatial data about waterway access, restrictions, and fishing regulations to improve public recreational information.
Key Policy Areas
Recreation, Public Lands, Water Resources, Data Management, Government Transparency
Primary Purpose
Requires federal land and water management agencies to standardize, digitize, and publicly publish geospatial data about waterway access, restrictions, and fishing regulations to improve public recreational information.
Policy Domains
main
Identified Gains
- National Park Service
- Bureau of Land Management
- Recreational anglers
- Outdoor recreation businesses
- State natural resource agencies
Identified Costs
- Secretary of the Interior
- Secretary of Agriculture
- Federal land and water management agencies
- Federal taxpayers
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
Signed into LawBecame Public Law No: 119-62.
Signed by President.
Presented to President.
Message on Senate action sent to the House.
Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources discharged by Unanimous …
Passed/agreed to in Senate: Passed Senate without amendment by Voice …
Passed Senate without amendment by Voice Vote. (consideration: CR S8766-8768)
Passed House (inferred from eh version)
Received; read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy …
Received in the Senate and Read twice and referred to …
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Congressional oversight committees
Positive-direction: Congressional oversight committees, Federal water regulators, Tribal natural resource agencies
Negative-direction: Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, Department of Agriculture (Forest Service), Department of the Interior, Federal Geographic Data Committee, Federal land and water management agencies, Forest Service, National Park Service, US Fish and Wildlife Service
GIS and geospatial data companies, GIS and mapping technology companies, Technology and geospatial data companies
State fish and wildlife agencies, State natural resource agencies
Recreational boaters and anglers, Recreational users (anglers, hunters, boaters)
Data science and analytics consultants
Outdoor recreation and tourism operators
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the_secretaries"
- → Secretary of Agriculture (via Forest Service) and Secretary of the Interior jointly
- "federal_land_or_water_management_agency"
- → Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A defined area in which all or certain fishing activities are temporarily or permanently prohibited or restricted by a Federal land or water management agency
Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, Bureau of Land Management, US Fish and Wildlife Service, and Forest Service
Waters managed by one or more of the relevant Secretaries
A restriction on the access or use of a Federal waterway applied under applicable law by one or more of the Secretaries
The Secretary of Agriculture (acting through the Chief of the Forest Service) and the Secretary of the Interior
Each of the several States, the District of Columbia, and each territory of the United States
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