By Billy Arnold and Charley Sutherland
Jackson Hole News&Guide
Via- Wyoming News Exchange

JACKSON — Federal lawmakers are set to meet in Grand Teton National Park this week to discuss the future of a landmark funding measure passed in the first Trump administration that allocated billions to public lands.

The House Committee on Natural Resources’ visit and planned dissection of the Great American Outdoors Act has set off a flurry of activity in Teton County. 

Business leaders are preparing to testify, county officials are drafting letters supporting public lands, and former land managers are working the phones (and Zooms) to understand where the committee stands. 

Rob Wallace, who oversaw the National Park Service during the first Trump administration, supports the Great American Outdoors Act and was upbeat about its future.

“I think they’re interested in putting a positive spotlight on what has been done,” Wallace said.

The committee is set to meet from 10 a.m. to noon Friday at the Jenny Lake Visitor Center.

Grand Teton Superintendent Chip Jenkins is slated to testify, alongside other Jackson residents and officials. U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, R-Wyo., is a member of the committee.

Passed in 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act had two primary parts. 

It allocated $1.6 billion annually toward deferred maintenance on public lands for five fiscal years: 2021 to 2025. It also provided $900 million annually in permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the government’s main vehicle for acquiring land. 

In 2024, the National Park Service used $62.5 million from the Conservation Fund to purchase the Kelly parcel, a 640-acre parcel of state land that is now part of Teton Park.

The maintenance funding has been used across Wyoming, from dam repairs on Bureau of Land Management land in eastern Wyoming to $17 million for a new visitor center on the National Elk Refuge, $46 million for improving Teton Park’s Moose-Wilson Road, and $133 million for replacing the Yellowstone River Bridge.

In total, 29 projects have been funded, and $545.5 million allocated in the Equality State.

But because the funding for deferred maintenance was only authorized for five fiscal years, Congress now has to decide whether to reauthorize that cash amid the Trump administration’s wider budget cuts.

Those cuts led to layoffs at both Grand Teton and Yellowstone national parks, as well as national forests in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. Some fired employees have, however, returned to federal service.

The question about funding also comes after the House Committee on Natural Resources debated a provision that would have authorized the sale of some public lands. 

That provision was revived in the Senate but was ultimately stripped from the Trump-backed One Big Beautiful Bill. It still created a political firestorm as conservative hunting groups and conservationists rallied for public land, and against the sale.

A Jackson business owner who is slated to testify Friday sees the proposed public land sale and the question of funding maintenance on public lands as two “entirely separate issues.”

He thinks the Great American Outdoors Act has a future.

“I believe there’s really good bipartisan support supporting this authorization,” said Taylor Phillips, the founder and owner of Jackson Hole EcoTour Adventures.

“Round one was a great first step, but the parks still need additional funds for deferred maintenance and round two will place emphasis on access to federal lands as well as recreation opportunities. I see 2.0 as benefiting the tourism economy.”

The Trump administration has continued to applaud the Great American Outdoors Act. 

Officials have celebrated its five year anniversary, and touted the bill in a budget proposal, even while looking to ax $73 million in Biden-era Park Service construction funding that officials said was better managed locally.

“The President’s deregulatory agenda will ensure that the Great American Outdoors Act funding for construction would go further than ever before,” officials wrote in the White House’s budget blueprint.

The Teton County Board of County Commissioners is also considering weighing in via a letter supporting adequate staffing in parks and increasing investments in stewardship of public land. Commissioner Luther Propst is glad federal lawmakers are coming to Teton County, where about 97% of land is publicly held.

“It’s a good opportunity for members of Congress to learn firsthand how important it is to fund our agencies,” Propst said.

As drafted, the county’s resolution, attached to the online version of this article at JHNewsAndGuide.com, establishes the importance of public lands to the county’s ecosystem and its residents. 

Commissioners will consider a final draft of the letter during their Tuesday meeting.

Jenkins, the park superintendent, and Phillips, the EcoTour owner and founder, will be joined by Leslie Mattson, the president of the Grand Teton National Park Foundation. Julie Calder, a Jackson Hole Mountain Resort executive and member of the Jackson Hole Travel and Tourism Board, is also set to take the stand alongside Kristen Brengel, the senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association.