Senate Approves Budget Reconciliation Bill: Brand USA and NPS Staff Funding Cut
The fireworks started early in DC but after nearly two days of debate, the Senate has narrowly approved the One Bill Beautiful Bill Act on a largely party line vote. While the major provisions of the bill have been well covered in the press, the provisions impacting tourism have not received as much attention. The specific issues I was watching, include:
Brand USA funding: the bill slashes the national DMO’s annual funding by 80% to $20 million. In addition, has been experiencing a hold up of its matching funds since January. The Trump Administration is requiring these types of funding to be reviewed by the Office of Management and Budget (OMB), which currently has a huge backlog. National Heritage Areas have also had their FY25 funding held up creating a huge operational strain on these non-profit organizations. Skift has a good round up of Brand USA’s funding crisis.
National Park Service staffing: the King amendment was not approved and the provision rescinding $267 million of previously committed funding to boost NPS staffing. This comes as the national parks are experiencing record-high visitation, the lack of adequate staffing will negatively impact the visitor experience.
Public Lands: the provision greenlighting the sale of nearly 1.23 million public lands for development was removed.
The Senate bill made substantial changes to the House legislation and it now returns to the House for approval. While the legislation may face additional challenges in the House as some Congressional Republicans have expressed concern that the Senate bill adds too much to the deficit, the House could start voting on the legislation as early as tomorrow. President Trump has set a July 4 deadline for getting the bill to his desk.
Next week, Senate appropriators plan to move forward with marking up fiscal 2026 government funding bills. The House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to vote on July 10 on the Commerce, Justice, Science bill and the Energy and Water Development bill. House Appropriations Chair Tom Cole (R-Okla.) wants to finish marking up all 12 funding bills by the end of July.
In train news, the NY Times reports that Amtrak will revive long-stalled Gulf Coast route in August. The Mardi Gras Service will connect New Orleans, LA and Mobile, AL by train for the first time since Hurricane Katrina in 2005.