I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1084
To amend the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996
to provide for the establishment of a Ski Area Fee Retention Account,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY6, 2025
Mr. N
EGUSE(for himself, Mr. MOOREof Utah, and Mr. PAPPAS) introduced
the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Agriculture,
and in addition to the Committee on Natural Resources, for a period to
be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for consider-
ation of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the committee
concerned
A BILL
To amend the Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Manage-
ment Act of 1996 to provide for the establishment of
a Ski Area Fee Retention Account, and for other pur-
poses.
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 1
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Ski Hill Resources for 2
Economic Development Act’’. 3
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SEC. 2. ESTABLISHMENT OF SKI AREA FEE RETENTION AC-1
COUNT. 2
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 701 of division I of the 3
Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 4
1996 (16 U.S.C. 497c) is amended by adding at the end 5
the following: 6
‘‘(k) S
KIAREAFEERETENTIONACCOUNT.— 7
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 8
‘‘(A) A
CCOUNT.—The term ‘Account’ 9
means the Ski Area Fee Retention Account es-10
tablished under paragraph (2). 11
‘‘(B) C
OVERED UNIT.—The term ‘covered 12
unit’ means the unit of the National Forest 13
System that collects the ski area permit rental 14
charge under this section. 15
‘‘(C) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘Secretary’ 16
means the Secretary of Agriculture. 17
‘‘(2) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary of the 18
Treasury shall establish a special account in the 19
Treasury, to be known as the ‘Ski Area Fee Reten-20
tion Account’. 21
‘‘(3) D
EPOSITS.—Subject to paragraphs (4) 22
and (5), a ski area permit rental charge collected by 23
the Secretary under this section shall— 24
‘‘(A) be deposited in the Account; 25
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‘‘(B) be available to the Secretary for use, 1
without further appropriation; and 2
‘‘(C) remain available for the period of 4 3
fiscal years beginning with the first fiscal year 4
after the fiscal year in which the ski area per-5
mit rental charge is deposited in the Account 6
under subparagraph (A). 7
‘‘(4) D
ISTRIBUTION OF AMOUNTS IN THE AC -8
COUNT.— 9
‘‘(A) L
OCAL DISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS .— 10
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—Except as pro-11
vided in subparagraph (C), the Secretary 12
shall expend 80 percent of the ski area 13
permit rental charges deposited in the Ac-14
count from a covered unit at the covered 15
unit in accordance with clause (ii). 16
‘‘(ii) D
ISTRIBUTION.—Of the amounts 17
made available for expenditure under 18
clause (i)— 19
‘‘(I) 75 percent shall be used at 20
the covered unit for activities de-21
scribed in paragraph (5)(A); and 22
‘‘(II) 25 percent shall be used for 23
activities at the covered unit described 24
in paragraph (5)(B). 25
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‘‘(B) AGENCY-WIDE DISTRIBUTION OF 1
FUNDS.—The Secretary shall expend 20 percent 2
of the ski area permit rental charges deposited 3
in the Account from a covered unit at any unit 4
of the National Forest System for an activity 5
described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of para-6
graph (5). 7
‘‘(C) R
EDUCTION OF PERCENTAGE .— 8
‘‘(i) R
EDUCTION.—The Secretary 9
shall reduce the percentage otherwise ap-10
plicable under subparagraph (A)(i) to not 11
less than 60 percent if the Secretary deter-12
mines that the amount otherwise made 13
available under that subparagraph exceeds 14
the reasonable needs of the covered unit 15
for which expenditures may be made in the 16
applicable fiscal year. 17
‘‘(ii) D
ISTRIBUTION OF FUNDS .—The 18
balance of the ski area permit rental 19
charges that are collected at a covered 20
unit, deposited into the Account, and not 21
distributed in accordance with subpara-22
graph (A) or (B) shall be available to the 23
Secretary for expenditure at any other unit 24
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of the National Forest System in accord-1
ance with the following: 2
‘‘(I) 75 percent shall be used for 3
activities described in paragraph 4
(5)(A). 5
‘‘(II) 25 percent shall be used for 6
activities described in paragraph 7
(5)(B). 8
‘‘(5) E
XPENDITURES.—Amounts available to 9
the Secretary for expenditure from the Account shall 10
be only used for— 11
‘‘(A)(i) the administration of the Forest 12
Service ski area program, including— 13
‘‘(I) the processing of an application 14
for a new ski area or a ski area improve-15
ment project, including staffing and con-16
tracting for the processing; and 17
‘‘(II) administering a ski area permit 18
described in subsection (a); 19
‘‘(ii) staff training for— 20
‘‘(I) the processing of an application 21
for— 22
‘‘(aa) a new ski area; 23
‘‘(bb) a ski area improvement 24
project; or 25
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‘‘(cc) a special use permit; or 1
‘‘(II) administering— 2
‘‘(aa) a ski area permit described 3
in subsection (a); or 4
‘‘(bb) a special use permit; 5
‘‘(iii) an interpretation activity, National 6
Forest System visitor information, a visitor 7
service, or signage; 8
‘‘(iv) direct costs associated with collecting 9
a ski area permit rental charge or other fee col-10
lected by the Secretary related to recreation; 11
‘‘(v) planning for, or coordinating to re-12
spond to, a wildfire in or adjacent to a recre-13
ation site, particularly a ski area; or 14
‘‘(vi) reducing the likelihood of a wildfire 15
starting, or the risks posed by a wildfire, in or 16
adjacent to a recreation site, particularly a ski 17
area, except through hazardous fuels reduction 18
activities; or 19
‘‘(B)(i) the repair, maintenance, or enhance-20
ment of a Forest Service-owned facility, road, or 21
trail directly related to visitor enjoyment, visitor ac-22
cess, or visitor health or safety; 23
‘‘(ii) habitat restoration directly related to 24
recreation; 25
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‘‘(iii) law enforcement related to public use and 1
recreation; 2
‘‘(iv) the construction or expansion of parking 3
areas; 4
‘‘(v) the processing or administering of a recre-5
ation special use permit; 6
‘‘(vi) avalanche information and education ac-7
tivities carried out by the Secretary or nonprofit 8
partners; 9
‘‘(vii) search and rescue activities carried out by 10
the Secretary, a local government, or a nonprofit 11
partner; or 12
‘‘(viii) the administration of leases under— 13
‘‘(I) the Forest Service Facility Realign-14
ment and Enhancement Act of 2005 (16 U.S.C. 15
580d note; Public Law 109–54); and 16
‘‘(II) section 8623 of the Agriculture Im-17
provement Act of 2018 (16 U.S.C. 580d note; 18
Public Law 115–334). 19
‘‘(6) L
IMITATION.—Amounts in the Account 20
may not be used for— 21
‘‘(A) the conduct of wildfire suppression; 22
or 23
‘‘(B) the acquisition of land for inclusion 24
in the National Forest System. 25
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‘‘(7) EFFECT.— 1
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—Nothing in this sub-2
section affects the applicability of section 7 of 3
the Act of April 24, 1950 (commonly known as 4
the ‘Granger-Thye Act’) (16 U.S.C. 580d), to 5
ski areas on National Forest System land. 6
‘‘(B) S
UPPLEMENTAL FUNDING .—Rental 7
charges retained and expended under this sub-8
section shall supplement (and not supplant) ap-9
propriated funding for the operation and main-10
tenance of each covered unit. 11
‘‘(C) C
OST RECOVERY.—Nothing in this 12
subsection affects any cost recovery under any 13
provision of law (including regulations) for 14
processing an application for or monitoring 15
compliance with a ski area permit or other 16
recreation special use permit.’’. 17
(b) E
FFECTIVEDATE.—This section (including the 18
amendments made by this section) shall take effect on the 19
date that is 60 days after the date of enactment of this 20
Act. 21
Æ
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