S2968-119

In Committee

Outdoor Americans with Disabilities Act

119th Congress Introduced Oct 3, 2025

Analysis under review: This bill has generated analysis that may be too generic or incomplete. Clause-level evidence remains available below.

Summary

What This Bill Does

The bill defines disability-accessible land, off-road vehicles, public land, and the responsible federal secretaries for the Act's access rules, requires the Forest Service and Interior Department to preserve minimum levels of motorized-road access for disability-accessible land and follow hearings, replacement-road, and closure-limitation rules before reducing, and creates clarifies that the Act does not itself create new roads or trails and does not open wilderness, roadless areas, primitive areas, or most national park units to motorized use. It relies on definition changes, compliance mandates, and savings clause. The main policy areas are Public Lands and Social Welfare.

Who Benefits and How

People with disabilities who rely on motorized access to public lands for recreation could face fewer barriers and Motorized and off-road recreation users on covered federal lands could face fewer barriers.

Who Bears the Burden and How

Forest Service and Interior Department land managers responsible for road-closure decisions would take on compliance duties.

Key Provisions

  • Defines disability-accessible land, off-road vehicles, public land, and the responsible federal secretaries for the Act's access rules.
  • Requires the Forest Service and Interior Department to preserve minimum levels of motorized-road access for disability-accessible land and follow hearings, replacement-road, and closure-limitation rules before reducing...
  • Creates clarifies that the Act does not itself create new roads or trails and does not open wilderness, roadless areas, primitive areas, or most national park units to motorized use.

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

The bill defines disability-accessible land, off-road vehicles, public land, and the responsible federal secretaries for the Act's access rules, requires the Forest Service and Interior Department to preserve minimum levels of motorized-road access for disability-accessible land and follow hearings, replacement-road, and closure-limitation rules before reducing, and creates clarifies that the Act does not itself create new roads or trails and does not open wilderness, roadless areas, primitive areas, or most national park units to motorized use.

Key Policy Areas

Public Lands, Social Welfare

Primary Purpose

The bill defines disability-accessible land, off-road vehicles, public land, and the responsible federal secretaries for the Act's access rules, requires the Forest Service and Interior Department to preserve minimum levels of motorized-road access for disability-accessible land and follow hearings, replacement-road, and closure-limitation rules before reducing, and creates clarifies that the Act does not itself create new roads or trails and does not open wilderness, roadless areas, primitive areas, or most national park units to motorized use.

Policy Domains

Public Lands Social Welfare

Sections 2, 4, and 5 - Disability-accessible road access on public lands

Identified Gains
  • People with disabilities who rely on motorized access to public lands for recreation
  • Motorized and off-road recreation users on covered federal lands
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Motorized and off-road recreation users on covered federal lands:
People with disabilities who rely on motorized access to public lands for recreation:
Identified Costs
  • Forest Service and Interior Department land managers responsible for road-closure decisions
Model: codex-gpt-5:bulk-repair | Version: bill_summary_v2 | Source: is
Forest Service and Interior Department land managers responsible for road-closure decisions:

Legislative Progress

In Committee
Introduced Committee Passed
Feb 12, 2026

Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, …

Oct 3, 2025

Mr. Lee (for himself and Mr. Curtis) introduced the following …

Oct 3, 2025

Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and …

Oct 3, 2025

Introduced in Senate

Stakeholder Effects

cui bono?

How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.

General Public
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

People with disabilities who rely on motorized access to public lands for recreation

Outdoor Recreation
1 mention across 1 clause
+1 positive

Motorized and off-road recreation users on covered federal lands

Government
1 mention across 1 clause
-1 negative

Forest Service and Interior Department land managers responsible for road-closure decisions

3/5
sections analyzed
Full impact breakdown

Bill Structure & Actor Mappings

Who is "The Secretary" in each section?

Domains
Public Lands Social Welfare
Actor Mappings
"the_secretary_concerned"
→ Secretary of Agriculture or Secretary of the Interior, depending on land jurisdiction
"the_secretary_of_agriculture"
→ Secretary of Agriculture acting through the Chief of the Forest Service
"the_secretary_of_the_interior"
→ Secretary of the Interior

Key Definitions

Terms defined in this bill

2 terms
"off-road vehicle" §2_off_road_vehicle

A motorized vehicle capable of travel on land, water, or other natural terrain.

"disability-accessible land" §2_disability_accessible_land

A square mile of public land that has at least 2.5 miles of authorized roads accessible to motorized or off-road vehicles as of enactment.

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