Before and after the hearing Benzar met with staffers for numerous members of the House and several key Senators, and conveyed two messages:

1. The Bishop draft bill lacks a statement of purpose or vision of what our public lands are for and what rights the people have to be able to access them. Without such a framework, it's impossible to construct policies to achieve that purpose. 

2. The recent federal court decision authorizing private concessionaires to charge fees the agencies are prohibited from charging signals the end of congressional oversight or public participation in recreation fee policy decisions. If the Concessionaire Escape Clause (CEC) is not closed, and soon, there won't be any "public" left in the management of public lands.

None of the offices had yet heard about the court ruling on the CEC, and they were shocked. Without exception they were confident that their Member or Senator won't support having separate rules for private concessionaires than what the agencies have to follow. The court ruled that the current law allows that, but every staffer said if so then it's an unintended consequence and needs to be fixed legislatively.  

So where do we stand legislatively?

There is a huge difference between the House and the Senate on that question. As exemplified by the hearing this month (preceding article) the House Subcommittee on Public Lands is moving full steam ahead with legislation that would bring big changes - most of them bad.  

Meanwhile, over in the Senate, they're not planning to do much of anything and are blissfully unaware of what the House is up to. A key factor is the recent leadership change in the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. The new Chair is Senator Mary Landrieu (D-LA). Because of the importance of oil and gas to Louisiana's economy, she is seen as much more focused on Energy than on Natural Resources, and not likely to take up major fee reform legislation, at least this session.

The Senate did know they have to do something about recreation fees this year, for a couple of reasons. One is that the multi-year authority for annual America the Beautiful Passes has to be re-authorized by December 8 or else the agencies won't be able to guarantee a full year of benefits to pass purchasers. Another is that, if the current law were allowed to expire the agencies have said they will interpret that to mean there is no statutory constraint on their fee programs at all and they will be free to charge anything they want for anything they like.  

They now also have a third reason, which is the recent court ruling allowing private concessionaires on the National Forests to operate by different rules than the Forest Service itself has to follow. If that unintended consequence of the current law is not fixed legislatively, Congress will have lost all power and control over Forest Service fees, and other agencies will likely follow suit before long.  

For a great description of what the concessionaire decision means, see George Ochenski's column in the Missoulian (Montana):

So the Senate knows they have to do something, but there doesn't seem to be much appetite for major reform this year. That means a re-authorization is likely to be placed as a rider on an appropriations bill, something that must pass in order to keep the agencies funded. If things go that way we'll be there pushing for small but important changes that could have a big impact.