Position on H.R. 3763, the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act

These investments begin to acknowledge the needs of our national parks and other federal lands that suffer from an increasingly costly backlog of repairs.

Maintaining our transportation systems on federal lands is of vital importance to the future public use and enjoyment of our federal lands, including national parks, forests and wildlife refuges. Roads, bridges and transit systems on our federal lands serve as main arteries to major cities as well as nearly one billion recreation and tourism visits annually. Federal lands and their transportation systems are wholly dependent upon federal funding; they do not have the benefit of support from state or local funding mechanisms. However, the funding levels for federal lands transportation programs have largely remained unchanged for nearly twenty years.

We support investments in our federal lands in the Surface Transportation Reauthorization and Reform Act of 2015 in order to provide safe access to our national parks and other federal lands for the enjoyment of the American people.