Bill in Congress to increase Senior park pass to $80

RoyB wrote:
The senior pass gets me into the Natl; Parks for free and then I also enjoy getting the camp ground fees at a 50% discount...

Fun while it all lasted I guess...

Roy Ken

I see no proposed change to the benefits you get with your senior pass.
If you didn't already have one, then purchasing one would cost you $70 more, but it still entitles you to the same benefits as it always did.

I'm retired USFS and was a recreation program manager and so am very familiar with the program.

In fact, the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act(FLREA) which the Senior Pass is a part of, brought in about $1 million extra dollar per year for the program on just one national forest. This went to hiring additional recreation rangers, trail construction and maintenance, recreation equipment purchases, installing solar pumps on the campground wells, upgrading campgrounds, etc. This is work that could never have been done without the additional funds brought in through the Recreation Enhancement Act.

It used to be that all the money collected through recreation fees went right back to the general federal treasury in Wash. D.C. to be spent on whatever programs Congress decided. Now with FLREA 80% of funds are retained on the unit that generated the funds to help manage the program. The remaining 20% of funds go to a USFS regional account to help recreation programs on federal lands where they don't generate a lot of funds