National Park System Long-Term Lease Investment Act

Current park leaseholders could get one extension without competing bids — and without a public notice.

More about this bill

Businesses and groups that lease buildings or land inside a national park could keep those leases longer. The Park Service could extend a lease once without advertising it or taking competing offers. The leaseholder would need at least five years on the lease and must be following its terms. The Park Service director would also have to put in writing that the extension fits the park's purposes. The bill does not require that written decision to be made public. Today the Park Service must run notice in newspapers at least twice before it picks a leaseholder. Its rules bar extensions, apart from one extra year when events outside the agency's control require it. Extensions under this bill would skip the notice step, so others would not get a chance to bid. A second extension would send the lease back out for bids. The total length of an extended lease would still have to fit park leasing rules. Those rules cap a lease at 60 years. The bill sets no length limit of its own. The Interior Department would have to rewrite the leasing rules within 90 days of the bill becoming law. Most park visitors would see no change.