Advocates of national parks, the environment, and public lands decried the budget reconciliation bill passed Tuesday by the Senate, citing provisions that cut hundreds of millions of dollars in conservation funding and open up areas around the parks to more high impact industry like drilling and mining.
"This bill is an affront to park lovers near and far, and could destabilize the places people go to hike, fish and connect with America’s historic and cultural resources," Daniel Hart, the National Park Conservation Association's director of clean energy and climate policy, said in a statement.
While a proposal from Sen. Mike Lee of Utah that would have allowed the sale of some public lands was removed, there remains several provisions that cut at the heart of protecting national parks.
“Republicans tried to push through the biggest public lands sell-off in modern history — and got rejected so badly they had to yank it. But make no mistake: this bill still guts protections, opens millions of acres to drilling, mining and logging, and rewrites the rules into a pay-to-play scheme for Trump’s billionaire donors," said U.S. Rep. Jared Huffman, the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee. "And this just adds to what the Trump administration is already doing to sell out our public lands to polluters and developers."
Huffman referred to the budget plan as the "Big, Ugly Bill."
Other leaders and conservation groups across the country were quick to chime in Tuesday afternoon, and didn't mince words.
“The removal of Sen. Lee’s universally unpopular sell-off plans is a win for all Americans, ensuring that public lands remain public,” said Travis Hammill of the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “While we celebrate this accomplishment, the legislation guts tax credits for clean energy, attacks the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), creates new handouts to extractive industries, and includes many other terrible provisions. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, our members, and our partners will continue to fight for our public lands and against any efforts to sell them off to the highest bidder.”
The legislation comes at a time when national parks are seeing record attendance numbers amid sweeping staff cuts mandated earlier this year by the Trump administration. The NPCA notes that the bill would rescind $267 million in Inflation Reduction Act dollars targeted for National Park Service staffing.
“Today the Senate voted for a bill that threatens America’s most treasured places and the dedicated public servants who protect them. At the height of their busy season, this bill strips away critical dollars that keep parks open and safe for the public," Hart said.
The plan would also hit hard at the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which helps protect parks, wildlife refuges and recreation areas at the federal, state and local levels. The fund doesn't use taxpayer money, but instead is funded by a small portion of proceeds from offshore oil and gas royalty payments
"The administration’s budget for Fiscal Year 2026 proposes to gut LWCF by diverting nearly $387 million - roughly 43% of the fund - away from conservation, recreation and sportsmen’s access needs across the country, with a 90% cut to critical projects to protect our National Parks, Forests, Wildlife Refuges, and BLM lands," the LWCF coalition said. "The proposal would undercut the Great American Outdoors Act, President Trump’s conservation legacy that he signed into law in 2020. We hope to work with the President to reverse this proposal."
The 940-page budget bill passed the Senate after a tie-breaking vote from Vice President JD Vance and now awaits a House vote.
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