YourVoice.Now Summary
EnvironmentTransparency & AccountabilityTargeted & Unrelated ProvisionsA Utah mountaintop flag would get a guaranteed 10-year permit — no fees, no environmental review.
Environment
The Forest Service would have to keep the flagpole work and any access route as small as it can. It could also set conditions to protect visitors and the land.
Federal law normally calls for a study of how a project affects the land. That step would be skipped here, along with the public comment it brings.
Transparency & Accountability
When the permit is open to new applicants, the Forest Service would have to say so on its website and in a Utah County newspaper. That gives local people a chance to apply.
Targeted & Unrelated Provisions
The Forest Service would lose the choice to say no. It would have to issue the permit within 180 days, then renew it every 10 years.
Permits to use forest land normally come with a land use fee, plus fees that cover the agency's costs. The permit holder here would owe neither.
More about this bill
Almost no one outside Utah County, Utah would notice this. It would end a local fight about a flag. The Forest Service would have to grant a 10-year permit for a flagpole at Kyhv Peak Lookout Point. The peak sits in the Uinta National Forest, above Utah Valley. The permit would go first to the person who has raised the flag there each year. If that person turns it down, a Utah County resident or local group with flagpole experience could apply. The permit holder would pay no land use fees. Processing fees would be waived too. The Forest Service would post notice of an open permit on its website, plus a local newspaper. Normal federal environmental review would not apply to this permit. The agency would still have to keep the work inside the smallest area needed. The first permit would be due within 180 days, with renewal every 10 years.
Congressional Summary
Star-Spangled Summit Act of 2026This bill directs the Forest Service to issue a special use permit to maintain a flagpole bearing the American flag at Kyhv Peak Lookout Point in the Uinta National Forest, which is in Utah. The Forest Service must issue the special use permit for a 10-year period and renew the permit as required by the bill. The Forest Service may impose terms and conditions on a permit holder to ensure the proper care and maintenance of the flagpole. The bill prohibits the Forest Service from charging a land use fee for the special use permit.The bill also exempts such permit from environmental review requirements under the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.As background, Scoutmaster Robert Collins and his scout troop raised the American flag at the point in 2000 and lowered it before winter. The flag was raised annually until the Forest Service cited policy that requires a permit for the construction or placement of any structure, including flagpoles, on National Forest lands. The bill directs the Forest Service to issue a special use permit so the flag may continue to be raised seasonally each year.
Legislative Subjects
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Reported to House
- Action Date
- 2026-04-02
- Date Added
- 2026-05-16
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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