II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1083
To provide for certain improvements to the housing and workforce programs
of Federal land management agencies, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH14, 2025
Mr. B
ARRASSO(for himself, Mr. DAINES, and Mr. KING) introduced the fol-
lowing bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on En-
ergy and Natural Resources
A BILL
To provide for certain improvements to the housing and
workforce programs of Federal land management agen-
cies, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
(a) S
HORTTITLE.—This Act may be cited as the 4
‘‘Land Manager Housing and Workforce Improvement Act 5
of 2025’’. 6
(b) T
ABLE OFCONTENTS.—The table of contents for 7
this Act is as follows: 8
Sec. 1. Short title.
Sec. 2. Definitions.
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TITLE I—EXPANDING AUTHORITY
Sec. 101. Prioritizing National Park Service workforce housing.
Sec. 102. Authorizing the National Park Service to address workforce housing
off-park.
Sec. 103. Expanding National Park Service rental options.
Sec. 104. Leveraging National Park Service rental receipts for workforce hous-
ing programming.
Sec. 105. Empowering the Forest Service to address workforce housing needs.
TITLE II—EXPANDING PARTNERSHIP CAPACITY
Sec. 201. Engaging partners to address National Park Service workforce hous-
ing.
Sec. 202. Encouraging public-private cooperative management.
Sec. 203. Leveraging philanthropic support to address National Park Service
workforce housing.
TITLE III—SUPPORTING WORKFORCE
Sec. 301. Supporting the land manager workforce.
Sec. 302. Supporting the seasonal National Park Service workforce.
TITLE IV—REPORTS AND OVERSIGHT
Sec. 401. Quantifying the workforce housing needs of land managers.
Sec. 402. Conducting oversight on the housing programming of land managers.
Sec. 403. Justifying emergency spending.
SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.
1
In this Act: 2
(1) A
PPROPRIATE COMMITTEES OF CON -3
GRESS.—The term ‘‘appropriate committees of Con-4
gress’’ means— 5
(A) the Committee on Energy and Natural 6
Resources of the Senate; 7
(B) the Committee on Agriculture, Nutri-8
tion, and Forestry of the Senate; 9
(C) the Committee on Appropriations of 10
the Senate; 11
(D) the Committee on Natural Resources 12
of the House of Representatives; 13
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(E) the Committee on Agriculture of the 1
House of Representatives; and 2
(F) the Committee on Appropriations of 3
the House of Representatives. 4
(2) C
OVERED AGENCIES .—The term ‘‘covered 5
agencies’’ means— 6
(A) the National Park Service; 7
(B) the Bureau of Land Management; 8
(C) the United States Fish and Wildlife 9
Service; and 10
(D) the Forest Service. 11
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 12
the Secretary of the Interior. 13
TITLE I—EXPANDING 14
AUTHORITY 15
SEC. 101. PRIORITIZING NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WORK-16
FORCE HOUSING. 17
Section 103502(a)(3) of title 54, United States Code, 18
is amended— 19
(1) by inserting ‘‘quarters for field employees 20
(as those terms are defined in section 101331),’’ 21
after ‘‘prioritize’’; and 22
(2) by inserting a comma after ‘‘facilities’’. 23
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SEC. 102. AUTHORIZING THE NATIONAL PARK SERVICE TO 1
ADDRESS WORKFORCE HOUSING OFF-PARK. 2
Section 100901 of title 54, United States Code, is 3
amended by adding at the end the following: 4
‘‘(i) A
CQUISITION OFLAND FORADMINISTRATION OF 5
S
YSTEMUNITS.— 6
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—To facilitate the adminis-7
tration of a System unit, the Secretary may acquire, 8
by donation, exchange, or transfer from another 9
Federal agency, not more than 20 acres of land or 10
interests in land, cumulatively, within the vicinity of 11
the System unit boundary for the development, con-12
struction, maintenance, or operation of quarters for 13
field employees (as those terms are defined in sec-14
tion 101331) for the System unit. 15
‘‘(2) M
ANAGEMENT.— 16
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—With respect to any 17
land or interest in land acquired by the Sec-18
retary under paragraph (1)— 19
‘‘(i) the land or interest in land shall 20
not— 21
‘‘(I) be administered as part of 22
the System; or 23
‘‘(II) be subject to the laws (in-24
cluding regulations) governing the as-25
sociated System unit; but 26
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‘‘(ii) the Secretary shall— 1
‘‘(I) have the authority to super-2
vise, manage, and control the land; 3
and 4
‘‘(II) issue such rules and regula-5
tions as the Secretary may determine 6
to be necessary and proper for the use 7
and management of the land. 8
‘‘(B) A
UTHORIZATIONS.—The Secretary 9
may grant exclusive privileges, leases, and per-10
mits for the use of land acquired under para-11
graph (1) and enter into contracts relating to 12
such authorizations as authorized under this 13
title, notwithstanding any restriction on such 14
authorizations to land within a System unit 15
boundary. 16
‘‘(3) D
ISPOSAL.—If the Secretary determines 17
that any land or interest in land acquired under 18
paragraph (1) no longer supports the administration 19
of the System unit— 20
‘‘(A) the Secretary may determine the land 21
and any improvements to the land to be excess 22
property for disposal; and 23
‘‘(B) the proceeds from the disposal of ex-24
cess property under subparagraph (A) shall be 25
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retained by the Secretary and deposited in the 1
special fund established for the development, 2
construction, maintenance, or operation of 3
quarters for field employees (as so defined) de-4
scribed in section 101338(b), to be expended by 5
the Secretary without further appropriation.’’. 6
SEC. 103. EXPANDING NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RENTAL 7
OPTIONS. 8
Section 101336 of title 54, United States Code, is 9
amended, in the first sentence, by striking ‘‘management, 10
repair, and maintenance of field employee quarters’’ and 11
inserting ‘‘development, construction, maintenance, or op-12
eration of quarters for field employees’’. 13
SEC. 104. LEVERAGING NATIONAL PARK SERVICE RENTAL 14
RECEIPTS FOR WORKFORCE HOUSING PRO-15
GRAMMING. 16
Section 101338 of title 54, United States Code, is 17
amended by adding at the end the following: 18
‘‘(c) U
SE OFSPECIALFUND BYNATIONALPARK 19
S
ERVICE.—Amounts deposited by the Service in the spe-20
cial fund described in subsection (b) and established under 21
section 320 of Public Law 98–473 (5 U.S.C. 5911 note) 22
shall be available for the development, construction, main-23
tenance, or operation of quarters for field employees at 24
System units.’’. 25
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SEC. 105. EMPOWERING THE FOREST SERVICE TO ADDRESS 1
WORKFORCE HOUSING NEEDS. 2
(a) U
SE OFFORESTSERVICESTRUCTURES OR IM-3
PROVEMENTS.—Section 7 of the Act of April 24, 1950 4
(commonly known as the ‘‘Granger-Thye Act’’) (64 Stat. 5
84, chapter 97; 16 U.S.C. 580d), is amended by striking 6
‘‘thirty years as determined by him’’ and inserting ‘‘30 7
years, or in the case of a permit for workforce housing 8
and related infrastructure, 50 years, as determined to be 9
appropriate by the Secretary of Agriculture’’. 10
(b) C
ONVEYANCES OF FORESTSERVICEADMINIS-11
TRATIVESITES.—Title V of the Forest Service Facility 12
Realignment and Enhancement Act of 2005 (16 U.S.C. 13
580d note; Public Law 109–54) is amended— 14
(1) in section 503— 15
(A) by striking subsection (f); and 16
(B) by redesignating subsection (g) as sub-17
section (f); and 18
(2) in section 504(c)(2), by striking ‘‘by com-19
petitive sale’’ and inserting ‘‘by soliciting not fewer 20
than 2 competitive bids’’. 21
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TITLE II—EXPANDING 1
PARTNERSHIP CAPACITY 2
SEC. 201. ENGAGING PARTNERS TO ADDRESS NATIONAL 3
PARK SERVICE WORKFORCE HOUSING. 4
Section 101701(a) of title 54, United States Code, 5
is amended— 6
(1) in paragraph (1), by inserting, ‘‘, including 7
projects for quarters for field employees (as those 8
terms are defined in section 101331),’’ after ‘‘re-9
sponsibilities of the Secretary’’; and 10
(2) in paragraph (2)— 11
(A) by inserting ‘‘, Tribal,’’ after ‘‘State’’; 12
(B) by inserting ‘‘(including an organiza-13
tion that has a philanthropic agreement to 14
fundraise or otherwise generate donations on 15
behalf of, or for the benefit of, the Service)’’ 16
after ‘‘organization’’; and 17
(C) by inserting ‘‘(including an individual 18
that has a philanthropic agreement to fundraise 19
or otherwise generate donations on behalf of, or 20
for the benefit of, the Service)’’ after ‘‘indi-21
vidual’’. 22
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SEC. 202. ENCOURAGING PUBLIC-PRIVATE COOPERATIVE 1
MANAGEMENT. 2
Section 101703 of title 54, United States Code, is 3
amended to read as follows: 4
‘‘§ 101703. Cooperative management agreements 5
‘‘(a) D
EFINITION OFSTATE.—In this section, the 6
term ‘State’ means each of the several States, the District 7
of Columbia, and each territory of the United States. 8
‘‘(b) C
OOPERATIVEMANAGEMENTAGREEMENTS.— 9
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary, in accord-10
ance with the laws generally applicable to System 11
units and under such terms and conditions as the 12
Secretary considers appropriate, may enter into a 13
cooperative management agreement with a State, In-14
dian Tribe, or local government with park land adja-15
cent to a System unit, if the agreement would pro-16
vide for more effective and efficient management of 17
a System unit and the adjacent non-Federal park 18
land. 19
‘‘(2) N
O TRANSFER OF ADMINISTRATIVE RE -20
SPONSIBILITIES.—The Secretary may not transfer 21
administration responsibilities for any System unit 22
under this subsection. 23
‘‘(c) P
ROVISION OFGOODS ANDSERVICES.— 24
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—The Secretary may provide 25
or acquire goods and services on a reimbursable 26
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basis as part of a cooperative management agree-1
ment entered into under subsection (b). 2
‘‘(2) R
ETENTION OF FUNDS .—The Secretary 3
may retain and expend any funds received under 4
this section without further appropriation. 5
‘‘(d) C
O-LOCATION.—The Secretary and a State, In-6
dian Tribe, or local government may co-locate in offices 7
or facilities owned or leased by either party as part of a 8
cooperative management agreement entered into under 9
subsection (b). 10
‘‘(e) E
MPLOYEES.— 11
‘‘(1) A
SSIGNMENT OF EMPLOYEE .—The Sec-12
retary may arrange an assignment under section 13
3372 of title 5 of a Federal employee or an employee 14
of a State, Indian Tribe, or local government, as 15
mutually agreed on, for work, on the applicable Fed-16
eral, State, local, or Tribal park land covered by the 17
cooperative management agreement. 18
‘‘(2) E
XTENSION OF ASSIGNMENT .—An assign-19
ment under paragraph (1) may be extended if the 20
Secretary and the State, Indian Tribe, or local gov-21
ernment determine the extension to be mutually ben-22
eficial.’’. 23
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SEC. 203. LEVERAGING PHILANTHROPIC SUPPORT TO AD-1
DRESS NATIONAL PARK SERVICE WORK-2
FORCE HOUSING. 3
Section 103501(c)(3) of title 54, United States Code, 4
is amended by striking ‘‘(including funds and fairly valued 5
durable goods and materials)’’ and inserting ‘‘(including 6
any combination of cash, fairly valued services, and dura-7
ble goods and materials)’’. 8
TITLE III—SUPPORTING 9
WORKFORCE 10
SEC. 301. SUPPORTING THE LAND MANAGER WORKFORCE. 11
(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Secretary or the Secretary of 12
Agriculture, as applicable, may recruit and directly ap-13
point qualified individuals into the competitive service who 14
are certified, in accordance with procedures established by 15
the Secretary or the Secretary of Agriculture, as applica-16
ble, as maintaining a permanent and exclusive residence 17
within the vicinity of a site administered by the National 18
Park Service, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, 19
or the Forest Service to a field unit which the individual 20
would report to work into any position at or below grade 21
GS–9 of the General Schedule, WG–15 of the Federal 22
Wage System, or equivalent within the applicable field 23
unit. 24
(b) R
EQUIREMENTS.—An appointment by the Sec-25
retary under subsection (a) shall be considered compliant 26
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with all applicable provisions of chapter 33 of title 5, 1
United States Code, if the Secretary ensures that the ap-2
pointment action— 3
(1) is consistent with the merit principles of 4
section 2301 of that title; and 5
(2) complies with the public notice requirements 6
of section 3327 of that title. 7
(c) T
ERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—The authority 8
provided under subsection (a) shall terminate on Sep-9
tember 30, 2030. 10
SEC. 302. SUPPORTING THE SEASONAL NATIONAL PARK 11
SERVICE WORKFORCE. 12
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Notwithstanding any other provi-13
sion of law, for purposes of determining the noncompeti-14
tive rehire eligibility of temporary seasonal employees of 15
the National Park Service— 16
(1) the Secretary shall establish a definition of 17
what constitutes a major subdivision of the National 18
Park Service; and 19
(2) any requirement that a position be in the 20
same local commuting area shall not apply. 21
(b) T
ERMINATION OF AUTHORITY.—The authority 22
provided under subsection (a) shall terminate on Sep-23
tember 30, 2030. 24
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TITLE IV—REPORTS AND 1
OVERSIGHT 2
SEC. 401. QUANTIFYING THE WORKFORCE HOUSING NEEDS 3
OF LAND MANAGERS. 4
Not later than 18 months after the date of enactment 5
of this Act, the Secretary and the Secretary of Agriculture 6
shall jointly submit to the appropriate committees of Con-7
gress a needs assessment report that provides, with re-8
spect to housing the workforce of covered agencies, as ap-9
plicable— 10
(1) an analysis of the unit type and condition 11
of— 12
(A) housing owned by the covered agencies; 13
and 14
(B) housing leased by the covered agencies; 15
(2) an analysis of the employment status of the 16
occupants of the housing analyzed under paragraph 17
(1), including— 18
(A) whether the occupants are— 19
(i) members of the permanent work-20
force; or 21
(ii) members of the seasonal work-22
force; and 23
(B) which positions identified under sub-24
paragraph (A) required housing provided by the 25
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applicable covered agency as a condition of em-1
ployment with the covered agency; and 2
(3) an analysis of the private housing markets 3
within the vicinity of a covered agency field unit, in-4
cluding— 5
(A) the availability and affordability of 6
housing for sale or lease; and 7
(B) the impact of vacation rental services 8
on— 9
(i) the cost of living; and 10
(ii) the available supply of housing. 11
SEC. 402. CONDUCTING OVERSIGHT ON THE HOUSING PRO-12
GRAMMING OF LAND MANAGERS. 13
(a) R
EPORT TO CONGRESS.—Not later than 18 14
months after the date of enactment of this Act, the Comp-15
troller General of the United States shall submit to the 16
appropriate committees of Congress a report that— 17
(1) assesses, in consultation with the National 18
Housing Council described in Office of Management 19
and Budget Circular A–45, the effect of Office of 20
Management and Budget Circular A–45R on the 21
housing of the workforce of covered agencies; 22
(2) assesses the effect of Office of Management 23
and Budget Circular A–11 on the housing of the 24
workforce of covered agencies; 25
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(3) assesses the effect of department-level guid-1
ance on the housing of the workforce of covered 2
agencies; 3
(4) assesses the effect of agency-level guidance 4
on the housing of the workforce of covered agencies; 5
and 6
(5) identifies suggested administrative actions 7
and legislative proposals to reform the guidance as-8
sessed under paragraphs (1) through (4), includ-9
ing— 10
(A) improvements to tenant experience; 11
(B) improvements to workforce housing 12
supply, including— 13
(i) housing managed by the covered 14
agencies; and 15
(ii) leased private market housing; 16
(C) improvements to financing options; 17
(D) improvements to public-private part-18
nerships; 19
(E) improvements to philanthropic engage-20
ment; and 21
(F) improvements to commuting times to 22
report stations, including— 23
(i) available housing in the gateway 24
communities; 25
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(ii) available housing in the nearest 1
established community (as defined in Of-2
fice of Management and Budget Circular 3
A–45); and 4
(iii) differences between normal com-5
muting conditions and peak-commute traf-6
fic conditions, including considerations 7
for— 8
(I) road quality and condition; 9
(II) availability of public trans-10
portation; 11
(III) winter driving; and 12
(IV) visitor traffic. 13
(b) I
MPLEMENTATION.—Not later than 1 year after 14
the date on which the report is submitted under subsection 15
(a), the heads of the covered agencies shall carry out the 16
administrative actions identified under paragraph (5) of 17
that subsection. 18
SEC. 403. JUSTIFYING EMERGENCY SPENDING. 19
Section 5 of the Act of August 3, 1956 (70 Stat. 20
1033, chapter 950; 7 U.S.C. 2228), is amended— 21
(1) by striking the section designation and all 22
that follows through ‘‘The Department’’ and insert-23
ing the following: 24
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‘‘SEC. 5. EMERGENCY SUBSISTENCE FOR EMPLOYEES. 1
‘‘(a) I
NGENERAL.—The Department’’; and 2
(2) by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(b) R
EPORT.— 4
‘‘(1) I
N GENERAL.—Except as provided in para-5
graph (3), not later than 30 days after the date on 6
which the Secretary of Agriculture furnishes subsist-7
ence to employees under subsection (a), the Sec-8
retary of Agriculture shall submit to the appropriate 9
committees of Congress (as defined in section 2 of 10
the Land Manager Housing and Workforce Improve-11
ment Act of 2025) a report providing— 12
‘‘(A) 1 or more justifications for the use of 13
the authority; 14
‘‘(B) the number of employees that were 15
furnished subsistence; 16
‘‘(C) the estimated cost of furnishing sub-17
sistence; and 18
‘‘(D) the expected duration for which sub-19
sistence is to be provided. 20
‘‘(2) O
FFICE OF MANAGEMENT AND BUDGET .— 21
The information for a report required under para-22
graph (1) shall be produced in coordination with, 23
and approved by, the Director of the Office of Man-24
agement and Budget. 25
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‘‘(3) EXCEPTION.—A report under paragraph 1
(1) shall not be required in the case of an emergency 2
resulting from a natural disaster, act of terrorism, 3
or other man-made disaster.’’. 4
Æ
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