Legislation· Dec 2025Sponsored by Celeste Maloy (R)
STARS Act
Waives entrance and recreation fees at federal parks and public lands on September 17, 2026.
Tradeoff
Lets all visitors enter National Parks and use federal recreation sites for free on one day to mark America's 250th anniversary. Agencies forgo entrance and standard amenity fees on that single date.
What's in it
Negligible effect on net direct spending over 2025-2030; no effect over 2025-2035.
The bill waives roughly $1 million in federal recreation fee revenue for a single day in 2026 to celebrate the 250th U.S. anniversary, but because those fees would have been spent by the agencies immediately anyway, the net federal budget impact is negligible.
Passed the House by on December 9, 2025 — sitting in the Senate.
House
Introduced
(Jul 2, 2025)
House
Committee on Natural Resources(Jul 2, 2025)
House
The Committee on Natural Resources voted to send it to the floor
Reported(Jul 23, 2025)
Committee report H. Rept. 119-294.
House
Passage of the bill
Passed by (Dec 9, 2025)
No individual votes were recorded.
Senate
Received from the House
on Energy and Natural Resources(Dec 10, 2025)