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Researh Sevice
The Great American Outdoors Act, P.L. 116-
152: Selected Provisions
Updated August 12,2020
The Great American Outdoors Act-P.L. 116-152-established a new fund with mandatory spending
authority to address deferred maintenance needs of five federal agencies. The law also made the deposits
to an existing fund-the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF)-mandatory spending and made
other changes to the LWCF Act. This Insight addresses some provisions of the new law.
National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM), Forest Service (FS), Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), and
National Park Service (NPS) maintain thousands of diverse assets, including roads and buildings. Each
agency has a backlog of deferred maintenance (DM), defined as maintenance not performed as needed
and put off for a future time. For FY2018, the backlog for NPS was reported at $11.9 billion, FS at $5.2
billion, F WS at $1.3 billion, and BLM at $ 1.0 billion. Additionally, the Department of the Interior (DOI)
reported DM of $1.8 billion for IndianAffairs, including the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). For all
the agencies except BIE, a major portion of DM is in transportation assets.
Most funding for agency DM has come from discretionary appropriations. The agencies also have
mandatory spending authorities, including tramsportation maintenance funding.
P.L. 116-152 established a new mandatory fund to address DM for the five agencies (NPS, FS, FWS,
BLM, and BIE). The fund is to receive annual deposits for FY2021-FY2025 of 50% of all federal energy
revenues (from oil, gas, coal, or renewable energy) credited as miscellaneous receipts to the Treasury, up
to a cap of $1.9 billion annually. The law states that it would not affect the disposition of revenues due to
states, trust funds, or special funds (such as the LWCF and the Historic Preservation Fund) and that it
would not affect revenues that have been otherwise appropriated under federal law (e.g., under the Gulf of
Mexico Energy SecurityAct [GOMESA] and the Mineral Lcasing Act).
Of the amounts deposited each year in the fund (up to $1.9 billion annually), NPS is to receive a 70%
share, FS 15%, FWS 5%, BLM 5%, and BIE 5% for its schools. The agencies must use the funding for
priority deferred maintenance projects. At least 65% of each agency's funds is for non-transportation
projects. In general, the President would submit lists of priority projects to Congress with annual budget
justifications. Appropriations acts may specify an alternate allocation. If alternate allocations have not
Congressional Research Service
https://crsreports.congress.gov
INI 1459
CRS MN GHT
Prepa red M. Membersand
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