Progress on Federal Recreation Fees

A bill has been introduced in the U.S. Senate, with bipartisan sponsorship, to repeal the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act,
also known as the Recreation Access Tax, or RAT.

A press release is available at:

http://crapo.senate.gov/media/newsreleases/release_full.cfm?id=288666

That's good news! I have my doubts that it'll pass, or even come to a floor vote, especially once someone opposed to the bill drops a number out there of how much revenue the govt. will "lose" by its passage. Never mind that it's our money in the first place, and far from the govt. "losing" anything, its passage merely means that the citizens "keep" more of their own money.

It sounds like a good deal not to have to pay any recreation fees, but most of the money collected by the USFS for camping or day use at local forrests for example is used locally to fund and maintain the specific area where it is collected. The likely result of passage of this bill would be even less funding to local USFS forrests in Colorado or any area unless specific funds were allocated to that area. We would then have to depend on the Washington bureaucrats for local funding and that is not a pleasant thought.

The alternative is that we buy a FLR "America the Beautiful" pass and get denied access to fee areas the forest service has contracted out to concessionaires.