FLREA Reauthorization

Transcription

1 FLREA Reauthorization Nearly one third of the nation is public lands and waters, managed by a variety of federal agencies and featuring national parks and national forests, national wildlife refuges and a variety of other special places. These areas attract well in excess of a billion recreation visits annually for activities ranging from hiking and rock-climbing, mountain biking and fishing, skiing and snowmobiling, wildlife and bird watching, ATVing and swimming, boating and more. These lands and waters attract a large and growing number of international visitors some 20% of our guests visit national parks alone and many others enjoy world-class ski areas on national forests, explore more than 550 wildlife refuges, climb our mountains and enjoy whitewater activities on public lands. Management of our federal lands is funded primarily by appropriations of general funds, but a significant and growing portion of this management depends upon fees some $400 million annually in entrance fees, fees at campgrounds and fees paid by businesses providing visitor services on federal lands. Most of this revenue approximately $300 million is authorized by the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act of 2004 (FLREA). The U.S. Congress enacted FLREA to authorize the collection and retention of entrance and recreation fees for most of the major federal recreation providers: Bureau of Land Management, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, and the U.S. Forest Service. The notable exception is the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the nation s largest provider of water-based outdoor recreation. FLREA replaced the experimental fee demo program that began in 1996 and allowed fee retention by collecting sites to avoid federal site closures and quality declines caused by tight agency budgets. In addition to daily and annual entrance fees at individual sites, FLREA created the America the Beautiful interagency pass, accepted at federal sites across the country. There are five types of passes covered by the interagency program: an $80 12-month pass; a $10 lifetime senior pass for those 62 and older; a free lifetime access pass for people with permanent disabilities; a free 12-month volunteer pass for those who volunteer 250 hours on federal lands; and a free 12-month pass for active duty military members. FLREA is scheduled to expire in December If no replacement legislation is enacted, these agencies will no longer have authority to establish, collect and retain 1200 G Street, N.W., Suite 650, Washington, D.C (202) Fax: (202)

2 recreation fees losing access to what has become an essential source of revenue, especially in the current, very challenging budgetary climate. Public support for most recreation fees is strong. In 2012, the agencies reported to the Congress visitor satisfaction with fees at rates that ranged from 83% (Forest Service) to 94% (National Park Service). However, FLREA has also caused some political controversy. In particular, some Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management fees have generated enough opposition to prompt senior and influential Senators from both political parties to introduce legislation to repeal FLREA. Most recreation and tourism advocates and federal agencies now collecting fees agree emphatically that the authorities in this legislation should continue, although there is also support for revising federal fee programs to make fee collection more efficient, to make fees more understandable and perceived as fair to the public, and to structure the programs so that higher fees are not offset by reductions in general funding of federal agencies. A number of specific ideas have been suggested to improve FLREA, including: Dynamic pricing of recreation services and opportunities, to try to encourage more visitation during non-peak periods; Reducing the cost of, and increasing the convenience of, fee collection efforts including use of electronic fee collection; Replacing costly and largely ineffective public involvement programs with better forums for considering agency fee proposals; Addressing details of the fee program ranging from senior passes to per car/per person options, fees paid by tour groups, and more. Action to extend FLREA is likely before December 2013 since a failure to act would jeopardize sales of annual passes, including the America the Beautiful Pass, beginning in January The President s Fiscal Year 2014 budget proposed a oneyear extension and proposes Congressional action to make fee authority permanent. Draft legislation which would extend FLREA for another 10 years or perhaps permanently is circulating on Capitol Hill and the House appropriations measure for FY14 includes a one-year extension. ARC has suggested: a three-year extension of FLREA (through December 2017) through the FY14 budget; inclusion of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers under FLREA beginning October 2013, with the authority to retain all recreation fees above the agency s FY13 collections; and authorization for testing new fee strategies, fee revenue uses and fee program administration in pilot efforts during the period of the extension, with the requirement that the agencies using this authority report to the Congress by September 20, 2016, on any requests for modifications to FLREA. ARC is an active part of several coalitions working on FLREA modifications and reauthorization. One of these coalitions, co-led by NPCA, has produced the attached overview. August 2013

3 Ideas Increase the price of the senior lifetime pass to equal the cost of an annual pass or retain the senior pass, but make it an annual pass rather than a lifetime pass Establish a one time fee for the lifetime disability pass equal to the cost of an annual pass ($80) Lower age for youth freeadmission from 16 to 12, but retain free admission for official school educational trips to the parks Authorize a higher fee for foreign park visitors, and/or a unique visitor pass Current Location in FLREA Section 5(b)(1) Section 5(b)(2) Section 3(d)(3)(A) Suggested Change in FLREA 1. Remove specific amount from legislation to provide authority to Secretary to determine amount, or 2. Change the amount to $80, or 3. Change language to annual or 4. Raise age to Change the language without charge to equal to cost of annual pass, or 2. Provide authority to Secretary of the Interior to set at a reduced amount. 3. Create automatic eligibility for disability pass for all recipients of purple heart medals 1. Change age from 16 to 12 in language. 1. Add language that interagency annual pass is for US citizens only, and 2. Add new pass language for foreign visitor pass or clarify that foreign visitors must pay individual park fee. 3. Authorize sale of international pass by inbound tourism industry Notes Current senior (age 62 and above) lifetime pass set at $10. More than twice as many senior passes sold than annual passes every year. Large problem with Boomers qualifying, but willing to support with fee payment. Need to find out how many lifetime disability passes are issued per year. Most parks charge per vehicle rather than per individual. Identifying foreign park visitors may be a logistical issue. Proof of citizenship is currently required for the senior and disability passes. NPS doesn t currently track international visitation to parks.

4 Change most park passes to per individual, versus carload Change most entrance fees to a daily fee. 1. Specify entrance fee should be charged on a per individual basis (adult), or 2. Charge per person fee per adult or after the first two adults. 1. Specify entrance fee should be charged on daily basis. The per vehicle change was established at the bureau level. Most entrance fees are charged for seven days. Increase the interagency annual pass (America the Beautiful Pass (ATB)) to $100. Sell a debit card in lieu of, or in addition to, the ATB pass. Section 5(a)(1) Amount not specified in current Act 1. Specify ATB pass to be set at $100, or 2. Specify ATB pass should remain at the discretion of the Secretaries. 3. Specify the price of the ATB pass be adjusted over time to reflect the change in Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers (CPI U). 1. Add language giving the Secretaries the authority to sell debit cards. 134 of the 401 units currently charge entrance fees $80 in 2007 (ATB launched) is equivalent to $90 dollars in In 2012, $30 million in ATB passes were sold, with $26 million of that sold and retained by the NPS. State park passes: CA = $125, FL = $120, NH = $105, VT = $80. The card could be honored for several years. Revenue could be generated from used value. Administrative costs for creating and managing debit cards. Consider prestige pass that permits holder limited special recognition 1. Add provision allowing creation of special pass which comes with walletand car identifications. Limited number of reserved parking slots, access to lane at entrance stations for prepaid, speedier access. Reduce fee program 1. Remove prohibitions on collection of Could allow increase in number of parks

5 administration costs and increase fee program ease for visitors, among other ways by utilizing electronic fee collection based on toll programs. Differential pricing to encourage non peak visitation to parks Differential pricing to encourage visitation to lesserknown parks fees on NPS units 2. Authorize and postal follow up for renewals 1. Provide directive language for the Service to implement. 1. Provide directive language for the Service to implement. collecting fees. Could involve broader pre selling of daily and seasonal passes. Could allow fee collection for certain parkways now used for portions of each day as commuter arterials. Could be a park level policy change, rather than a FLREA change. Could be a park level policy change, rather than a FLREA change. Ideas from the Bipartisan Policy Center White Paper titled Enhancing Park Experiences through Fees and partners.