This bill creates a new Treasury account called the "Ski Area Fee Retention Account." Ski area permit rental charges collected by the Forest Service are to be deposited in that account. Most of the fees collected at a specific National Forest unit must be kept for use at that same unit: generally 80 percent of the fees are to be spent at the covered unit and 20 percent can be used anywhere in the National Forest System. Of the 80 percent kept for the covered unit, three-quarters (75%) must be used for administration, permit processing, staff training, visitor information and services, signage, fee collection costs, planning or coordinating wildfire response or reducing wildfire risk around recreation sites (except hazardous fuels reduction), and similar activities. The remaining one-quarter (25%) of the 80 percent may be used for repairs, maintenance, habitat restoration directly tied to recreation, law enforcement related to recreation, parking construction or expansion, special use permit processing, avalanche information and education, search and rescue, and certain lease administration. The Secretary of Agriculture may reduce the local share to as low as 60 percent if the Secretary finds the local unit does not need the full amount; funds not used locally are then available agency-wide with the same 75/25 split for the two activity groups. Money in the account cannot be used for wildfire suppression or to buy land for the National Forest System. Funds deposited are available to the Secretary without further appropriation and remain available for four fiscal years after deposit. The bill takes effect 60 days after enactment.
The bill directs that ski area permit rental charges be deposited into a special Treasury account and says those amounts are available to the Secretary without further appropriation and remain available for four fiscal years after deposit. No publicly available information on total federal costs or budgetary estimates is included in the bill text or provided metadata.
The bill text says retained rental charges "shall supplement (and not supplant) appropriated funding" and sets rules to keep most collected fees available for local ski area administration, maintenance, safety, and visitor services. These features are presented in the bill as how the retained funds should be used.
No publicly available information.