Oversight Hearing on: “EXPLORE America250: Enhancing Accessibility at our National Parks and Public Lands”
No chapters available yet
Legend
Transcript markers
- text Sentence being played
- text Search result
- text Intervention cited by the link you opened
Click a sentence to play the video from that moment. Select text to quote it with the speaker, timestamp and link.
More options
House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Federal Lands U.S. House of Representatives
Follow its sittingsSpeaker 2
Without objection, so ordered. I'd like to thank each of our witnesses for taking time out of your schedules to join us and share your expertise at this hearing. We look forward to hearing from each of you today. With that, I yield back, and we'll now recognize the ranking member, Miss Dexter from Oregon, for an opening statement.
Speaker 3
Thank you, Chairman Tiffany, and thank you to our witnesses for making the trip to join us today. As an Oregonian, I know what public lands and outdoor access mean to a community. And in my district and across our state, families hike the Timberline Trail, fish the Columbia River, camp in the gorge, and find solace in the mountains and forests that make Oregon home. That's why the EXPLORER Act matters. It took years of collaboration between this committee, the outdoor recreation committee, community user groups, businesses, hunters and anglers, and folks all over the country who share a love for our public lands and waters.
It was also a meaningful bipartisan achievement that showed Congress can still come together to solve problems. The EXPLORER Act is a landmark legislation that expands access to the outdoors and helps ensure that when we say public lands, we really mean public. Today's hearing focuses on title two of the EXPLORER Act, which works to increase meaningful access to our recreation opportunities for everyone, those with disabilities, active duty military service members, veterans, their fan, and their families, and youth. This title was made possible by exemplary work on both sides of the aisle, including this subcommittee's very own representative Stansbury's Promoting Accessibility on Federal Lands Act. This provision directed federal land management agencies to inventory recreation opportunities to increase accessible options for all Americans.
Representative Levin's GROW Act helped create a pilot program at the Department of the Interior to hire more veterans in meaningful outdoor recreation jobs. And the reauthorization of every kid outdoors allowed us to continue giving fourth graders across the country free access to our national parks and public lands. We are proud of all these contributions, but our job does not end when a bill becomes a law. Our responsibility is to make sure the law is implemented and that the promises we made to the American people become real. And that is where I'm concerned.
I know agency staff want to deliver on the goals and ambitions set by Congress. Unfortunately, president Trump is creating as much chaos and too tumult at home as he is all over the world with interventionist wars of choice and vindictive tariff regimes. The National Park Service has already lost a quarter of its permanent staff, and the proposed Forest Service reorganization has created immense confusion and distress in my district. The president doesn't seem to be done attacking our parks and public lands. The latest budget request would cut hundreds of millions of funding from land management agencies, including 2,000 employees from the national park system.
This is a recipe for failure. If our parks and public lands are understaffed and underfunded, they will not have the capability to implement these accessibility provisions, no matter what the law says. And it gets even worse from there. The committee has heard from several stakeholders that the Trump administration is refusing to release funding for the Outdoor Recreation Legacy Partnership, another important EXPLORER Act priority that promotes access to outdoor recreation, despite Congress approving appropriations for the last two fiscal years. So this hearing comes at exactly the right moment.
We need answers about implementation of the EXPLORER Act, about title two accessibility priorities, and about whether Congress's intent is being honored. Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a difficult position today because there isn't a single representative from the Department of the Interior or the US Forest Service here to answer questions. While we appreciate the submission of statements for the record, those documents are simply no substitute for a live exchange in a congressional hearing, where we are trying to ensure these programs are actually delivering for the American people. That said, I want to sincerely thank our witnesses who are appearing before us today. We truly appreciate your dedication and expertise, and I look forward to your testimony as we navigate these important public lands issues.
Thank you, and I yield back.
Speaker 2
The ranking member, Dexter, yields. And I now recognize the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Westerman, for his statement.
Speaker 4
Good morning, everyone, and thank you, Chairman Tiffany, for holding this, what I'll call a very important hearing today on Title Two of the EXPLORER Act, which expands access for individuals, for our military service members, for veterans, and for Gold Star families. This is an issue that's been near and dear to my heart as chairman of the committee. In 2022, we worked with a bipartisan group of members on the Veterans in Park for the VIP Act, which codified free lifetime passes for our veterans and Gold Star family members. Then building on that success, we worked on the Bipartisan Military and Veterans in Parks Act or the MVP Act. Got we some really good acronyms going on here to describe our veterans, which eventually became the basis of title two of the EXPLORER Act, which is another good acronym.
The motivation behind both of these efforts is straightforward, and that is that absolutely nothing should stand in the way of our brave veterans accessing the very public lands they put their lives on the line to defend. This year, millions of Americans will flock to our national parks and public lands to celebrate our semiquincentennial. For some, this will mean visiting hallowed battlegrounds to remember the sacrifices that allowed our great nation to even exist in the first place. For others, it will mean camping with their families under the stars in Yosemite Valley or hiking in the Grand Canyon. For me and my family, it will mean visiting Hot Springs National Park, and hopefully floating on the Buffalo National River, the nation's first wild and scenic river.
And I'll put a plug in for my hometown of Hot Springs, which was the first federal land ever set aside by the federal government in reserve, long before anybody had ever heard of Yellowstone. These are experiences that everybody should be able to enjoy, and they should be able to enjoy them regardless of physical ability. That's what makes title two of the Explore Act so important. Those experiences that I described aren't possible when we don't thoughtfully design accessible recreation infrastructure. Families can enjoy a camping experience in Yosemite if there are accessible bathrooms or parking lots connected to that opportunity, nor can they plan a hike in the Grand Canyon if they don't have access to objective trail information.
One of the most important points in this discussion is that improving accessibility doesn't mean overbuilding or fundamentally changing the character of our public lands. In many cases, it's quite the opposite. Too often people hear accessibility, and they think that only means paving trails or creating boardwalks in nature. This couldn't be further from the truth. The demand for accessible recreation opportunities is clear, just as it's clear that folks with disabilities want those opportunities to feel like genuine backcountry experiences they can share with their entire families.
Creating accessible recreation is about making smart, targeted modifications that improve access while maintaining the natural experience. It can be as simple as regrading a section of trail, improving the surface, adjusting the slope, or rerouting around an obstacle. These are not large-scale changes, but they can make a meaningful difference in who is able to use that trail. Take, for example, the picture behind me, from Rocky Mountain National Park. On one side, you have a trail with stairs that is impassable for people who use wheelchairs.
On the other side of the picture, the trail that has been reengineered to provide a more gradual and accessible slope. That change does not take away from the experience. It improves it, and not just for people with disabilities, but also for the elderly, for new moms with strollers, or anybody with limited mobility. In other words, when we design trails and recreation infrastructure more thoughtfully, we improve the experience for everyone involved. At Hot Springs National Park, as I said in my hometown, one priority is the Explore project that has been identified as improving access to the bathhouses through features like lifts, along with expanded accessible hiking opportunities.
These are not large-scale redesigns, but practical improvements that will allow more people to participate in and enjoy the experience. And this is what the EXPLORER Act is all about. By making a minor modification that most visitors would never even notice, like changing stairs to a slope, we have opened up a whole new experience to the millions of Americans who live with a disability. If we make enough of these small, thoughtful improvements, we can open up opportunities that were previously out of reach, all across the country. But access is not just about whether a trail like this exists in the first place.
That doesn't matter if somebody with a disability doesn't know how or doesn't know about this trail or can't get information about the trail conditions before they arrive. Title two, the EXPLORER Act recognizes that reality. It provides a framework for agencies to identify where these types of improvements can be made, to increase the information available to the public, and to develop new opportunities that expand access across public lands. It also recognizes the importance of partnerships in delivering these improvements, and encourages agencies to work with local communities and outside organizations to get the work done. As chairman Tiffany noted, early implementation efforts are underway.
The challenge now is to build on that progress and ensure these efforts translate into consistent, on-the-ground improvements. We know this will work, and we know that this work will take resources, which is why I secured report language in last year's appropriations bill directing the agency to prioritize funding on EXPLORER implementation, specifically focused on title two. Also plan to request similar language in this year's appropriations, and would welcome any of my colleagues to join me in making a bipartisan request. We've also been working on legislation to reauthorize the Great American Outdoors Act and specifically allow that funding to be used for accessibility projects authorized under Title Two of EXPLORER. This is important because when we had our oversight field hearing on GAOA in the Grand Tetons National Park last year, we visited two trailheads, one that had been eligible for GAOA funding and one that had not.
I'm pleased that one of our witnesses, mister Joe Stone, is joining us today as he led a bipartisan group of members after our field hearing on a hike to the Taggart Lake Trail so we could see firsthand the kind of accessibility improvements that inspired the EXPLORER Act. What we learned on that hike was that this important work wasn't classified as deferred maintenance by the National Park Service, so it couldn't receive GAOA money. When we think about the next iteration of the Great American Outdoors Act, this is exactly the type of investment we should be making into our national parks, investments that improve access and outdoor recreation opportunities. And I look forward to working with my colleagues on both sides of the aisle and on the other side of the capital to make that vision a reality and send this bill to the president's desk in celebration of America's 250th birthday. Before I yield back, I'd like to extend a special thank you to Quinn Brett, Joe's business partner at Dovetail Consulting, and a former accessibility official at the Department of the Interior.
Quinn was instrumental in crafting the title two of the EXPLORER Act, and this conversation today would not have been possible without her hard work and expertise. Oh, mister chairman, thank you for your generosity, and I yield back.
Speaker 2
And the gentleman yields back. Was just commenting to the ranking minority. Remember, we are rather wordy on our side this morning, me included. I mean.
Speaker 4
It's a great issue that needs to be talked about more. And it's exciting what we can do here. So thank you again for the.
Speaker 2
Thank you for your opening statement, chairman. And now we're gonna go to our first and only panel today. I wanna remind our witnesses that under committee rules, you must limit your oral statement to five minutes, but your entire statement will appear in the hearing record. To begin your testimony, please press the on button of the microphone. We use timing lights.
When you begin, the light will turn green. At the end of five minutes, the light will turn red, and I will ask you to please complete your statement. First, I would like to introduce Mister Joe Stone, co-owner of Dovetail Trail Consulting. Mister Stone, you are recognized for five minutes. Welcome.
Speaker 6
Chairman, members of the committee, thank you for the opportunity to be here. My name is Joe Stone. I'm a co-owner of Dovetail Trail Consulting, and I'm also a C7 quadriplegic. I've been using a wheelchair for the past 15 years. In the first few years, I was trying to figure out what was possible in the outdoors, and I was constantly met with barriers that forced me to turn around, head back to the car, and give up for the day.
But I was stubborn enough to keep trying. Over time, I found my way back into the outdoors. Although life as a wheelchair user in the outdoors was limited, I did find some success. And as I shared those experiences, more people with disabilities began reaching out, asking how and where they could go. Rediscovering the outdoors changed my life.
I went from believing I would spend the rest of my life in a nursing home, fully dependent on others, to building a life filled with adventure, community, and purpose. The journey set me on a path to creating better access for people with disabilities on our public lands. I wanna share a few stories. Two friends of mine, Travis Mills and Taylor Morris, are two of only five surviving quadruple amputees from the Iraq War. They came to visit the Grand Teton National Park with their families.
They took the boat across Jenny Lake to hike to Hidden Falls, an easy hike for most. But when they got off the boat, they were met with a series of steps, beginning at the dock, and hundreds more to the falls. There was no information available ahead of time to tell them what they were walking into, so they were left sitting on the dock while their families went up to Hidden Falls without them. Both Travis and Taylor gave their lives in service to a country they love. Should they not be able to access the lands they sacrificed so much to protect?
A couple of weeks later, I was back at that same place. I met a mom sitting on a dock, same dock with her daughter who had a disability. It was the same situation. Their family had gone up to Hidden Falls, and they were left behind. She watched as I used adaptive equipment to get over those barriers, and it gave her a hope for her daughter's future.
But that equipment can cost over $20,000, and is not accessible to most families. So even in that moment of hope, she still saw a world where her daughter could not fully participate. I've seen another version of this. A couple came to Grand Teton National Park to go for a hike. One was a wheelchair user.
They were told the trail would be mostly accessible. They made their way out, committed to the experience, and then hit a series of steps and narrow sections that they could not get through. They were stuck there and had to be rescued. Better information about that trail could have prevented that. All
Speaker 6
Of these situations, show the same thing. People with disabilities are not avoiding the outdoors. They are actively seeking it out. But too often, they are met with barriers instead of clarity. That is the gap.
At Dovetail, this is exactly the work I do. We partner with land managers like Grand Teton National Park and nonprofits like the Grand Teton National Park Foundation to assess trails, collect objective data, and look at the full entry-to-exit experience. From the parking lot to the trail itself, can someone with a disability fully participate? What I constantly find is this. When you improve access, you improve the experience for almost everyone.
This is why I'm encouraged by the EXPLORER Act. But policy alone does not change what happens on the ground. If we want to succeed, if we want it to succeed, we need real funding and the right people at the table, meaning people with disabilities. Agencies are already stretched thin. Without dedicated funding, this work gets delayed, and delay means continued exclusion.
This work is not just for people with disabilities. It's for their friends, their families, and their entire communities. The Architectural Barriers Act of 1968, section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973, and the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 were created to ensure access and inclusion. But on our public lands, we have not seen the funding or the intent needed to carry out those laws into the outdoor experience. This is where the EXPLORER Act comes in.
It has the potential to finally fill that gap, to bring these civil rights laws into our public lands. So my ask is simple, fund it. If we do that, we will not just expand access. We will make our public lands work better for everyone. Thank you.
Speaker 2
Thank you, Mr. Stone. I will now recognize Mister Mike Paso, executive director at American Trails. Mister Paso resides in my congressional district, and it's great to have you out here in Washington, DC, Mister Paso. And we look forward to your testimony. You have five minutes.
Speaker 5
Great. Thanks. It's good to see you again. Chairman Westerman, Chairman Tiffany, Ranking Member Dexter, and all the members of the subcommittee. Thank you for the time and space to listen to what this great panel has to say.
My name is Mike Paso, and I'm the executive director of American Trails. And I'm also a member of the Trails Accessibility Coalition, which has been brought together to help you and help our land managers implement the Explorer Act, especially title two. The Explorer Act is one of the most important opportunities we have to expand access to public lands in a generation. But without staffing and funding, it risks becoming an unfunded mandate and a transformative solution. Back in 1991, at the age of 20, I was in a mountain biking accident in the Suquamish National Forest in Northern Wisconsin.
In a place that I love the most, doing the thing that I love the most. On a trail that I love the most, I flipped over my handlebars and broke my back, and I was instantly paralyzed. And while I was recovering in the hospital, I had a small epiphany or a large epiphany to me, but small probably to the rest of the world. I suddenly realized that I wasn't thinking about the surgery that was coming up. I wasn't thinking about being able to walk or go to the bathroom.
I was thinking about how the heck I was gonna go mountain biking in. That's primarily what was on my mind to the extent that I was jotting down designs for chairs while I was sitting in that hospital bed. And that's when it occurred to me that people define themselves by how they create. It's right there in the word recreate. People recreate themselves when they do their outdoor recreational activities.
And I think that's key. It really strikes at the core of how people view themselves, how they interact with their own world, and how they define themselves. And if you take that away for any reason, it'll cause a visceral reaction, as you've probably experienced. People recreate themselves through recreational activities, and recreation cannot happen without trails, in my opinion. I'm a little biased because I run a company called American Trails.
But trails are fundamental to recreation, and trails just can't exist without people to maintain and build them. Organizations like American Trails can bring an army of folks willing to help maintain trails on public lands, but it doesn't work if there's nobody there for them to work with. The single greatest barrier, in my opinion, right now is not policy, it's capacity. Across federal land management agencies, we are seeing substantial reductions in workforce capacity. These issues are not abstract.
They're directly affecting the ability to carry out projects, maintain trails, and support partnerships that make access possible. At American Trails, we administer, for example, a grant program that leverages nonprofit expertise and volunteers to address deferred maintenance on Forest Service lands. These projects consistently deliver very strong returns on investment, like 8 to 1. Yet today, several of the projects that we have the funding for and have are raring to go to start, they simply can't move forward because their forced service contacts are gone. And that's happening in small pockets all throughout the federal lands.
At the same time, agencies are facing proposed budget reductions to the very programs that support recreation, maintenance, and accessibility. This creates a fundamental challenge. We cannot expand access while reducing the staff and the resources required to deliver it. Those goals are fundamentally at odds. The EXPLORER Act also recognizes that accessibility is not only about building new infrastructure, it's about providing better information, as we've heard.
For many people, especially those with disabilities, knowing what to expect on a trail is the key to participation. And finally, I think accessibility should not be viewed as a niche issue. It's a universal one. It affects families, older adults, veterans, anyone who wants to enjoy the outdoors confidently. Accessibility is not about a small group of users.
It's about all of us. At some point, we will all experience this almost regardless of our expertise. I've seen many proposed amendments to this law, and I think a lot of them have a lot of value, so I think they should be considered. But at its core, this is about who our public lands are for, and ensuring that every American sees themselves in the answer. Thank you for your time and your commitment to ensuring the Americans can access all our public lands.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Thank you, Mr. Paso. I now recognize Ms. Julie Howell, associate legislative director for government relations at Paralyzed Veterans of America. Miss Howell, welcome, and you are recognized for 5 minutes.
Speaker 7
Thank you, sir. Chairman Westerman, chairman Tiffany, ranking member Dexter, and members of the committee, Paralyzed Veterans of America appreciates the opportunity to testify today on behalf of our members, veterans who have incurred spinal cord injury or disorder, or SCI. For 80 years, disability access has been central to PVA's mission. The fight for accessibility is long and storied, fraught with exploitation and avoidance. But over the years, we've seen progress through the passage of the Architectural Barriers Act, the Rehabilitation Act, and the passage of the Americans with Disabilities Act, or the ADA.
PVA has advocated for each of these advancements, and we're proud to testify today on the disability provisions included in the EXPLORER Act, which seeks to improve access to federal lands and parks for disabled veterans. My oral remarks will focus on how PVA supports catastrophically disabled veterans through sports and recreation opportunities, and how Congress can ensure the intended goals of the EXPLORER Act are fully realized, particularly the military and veterans and park section. PVA's sports and recreation program offers more than 60 adaptive sporting and recreation opportunities across the country. Recently, we've developed our own outdoor recreation experience, which aims to provide an enriching and supportive environment for PVA members to engage in outdoor activities that foster physical and mental well-being. Our first event was last year in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, where 10 PVA members visited Grand Teton National Park and the surrounding areas to experience hiking, adaptive biking, and other activities.
Future events will include adaptive mountain biking, water sports like whitewater rafting, and winter sports such as adaptive skiing. These events go beyond just recreation. They're crucial components of healing, rehabilitation, and community reintegration. PVA believes that the accessibility provisions within the EXPLORER Act will be critical in increasing access to federal lands and parks for people with mobility impairments. Reducing accessibility barriers in outdoor spaces will have a significant impact on disabled veterans.
However, enforcement of disability access requirements will be critical in ensuring the successful implementation of this bill. The minimum accessibility standards already established in law are still not uniformly implemented on federal lands. PVA has concerns that with constrained budgets and reduced staffing, fully implementing these accessibility provisions might be delayed. Funding for the national park system has remained flat over multiple administrations, according to a Congressional Research Service report published in 2024. However, recent budget proposals would drastically cut funding for federal land management agencies, which may make it even more difficult to carry out the accessibility provisions within the EXPLORER Act.
Now I'd like to share some of our thoughts on the military and veterans and part section of the bill. PVA sees three themes that will be critical in the effective implementation of the EXPLORER Act. Ensuring a proper foundation and appropriate resources, partnerships, programming, sustainability, and evaluation. For the EXPLORER Act to be successful, Congress must prioritize securing sufficient and sustained funding across federal agencies. Impacted agencies will have to work together to develop accessible infrastructure, including adaptive equipment and facilities for disabled veterans and all visitors.
Partnerships and programming will be critical for success, which means there must be meaningful collaborations with veteran organizations, private outdoor recreation companies, as well as establishing relationships with state and local governments that respect military culture and values. Programming must include professional staff equipped with cultural competency, peer-to-peer veteran support systems, and adaptive offerings for various abilities and all comfort levels. Finally, long term success for this section hinges on implementing robust tracking systems to measure participation rates, health outcomes, and programming effectiveness. Achievement here should be measured by increasing veteran participation in outdoor recreation opportunities, and the evolution of veterans' needs and evidence-based practices. There will be challenges in accomplishing the loftier goals of the EXPLORER Act, but PVA is eager to partner with the committee and any federal partner to make as much progress as we can in increasing outdoor recreation opportunities for catastrophically disabled veterans.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today, and I'm happy to answer any of your questions.
Speaker 2
Thank you, Miss Howell. Finally, I'd now like to recognize Miss Marine Elias, deputy director of government affairs for veterans at the Wounded Warrior Project. Miss Elias, you are recognized for five minutes.
Speaker 8
Thank you. Chairman Westerman, chairman Tiffany, Rankymember Dexter, and members of this subcommittee, thank you today for the opportunity to appear before you. I am Marina Elias, a US Army veteran, and I'm here on behalf of the Wounded Warrior Project. We appreciate the subcommittee's leadership on the EXPLORER Act and the opportunity to share our perspectives on how thoughtful implementation can improve access to outdoor recreation for veterans, service members, and their families. For more than 23 years, Wounded Warrior Project has supported veterans and their families as they heal from the visible and invisible wounds of military service.
We work alongside Congress, community partners, and other veteran-serving organizations to help lawyers reconnect to themselves, to their communities, and find a renewed sense of purpose. And outdoor recreation plays a meaningful role in that work. Across our programs, we consistently see that time spent outdoors supports physical health, mental health, and social connection, whether that be through adaptive sports, group challenges, or just quiet time in nature. Access to outdoor experiences helps veterans rebuild confidence, manage stress, and reconnect with others. But access is not just about whether the land is open or not.
It's about whether veterans can safely and confidently use those spaces on their own. This is particularly important for post-9/11 veterans, many of whom manage service-connected conditions that affect wayfinding, attention, and risk perception. In outdoor environments, unclear signage or limited pre-visit information can undermine confidence and independence. The Explorax focus on improving wayfinding and reliable information helps reduce unpredictability that may keep veterans from getting outdoors. Ensuring a veteran has all the information at hand to plan an outdoor activity and know what to expect can help alleviate anxiety and uncertainty, and just feel more in control, which is why the implementation details of the EXPLORER Act matter so much.
The recommendations in our written testimony are informed by our experience delivering hundreds of programs each year, as well as the lived experiences of the warriors who participate in them. Warriors like Don, a marine veteran from Arizona, who recently attended one of our winter adaptive sports clinics. Following an amputation, Don was unsure whether he would ever snowboard again. Through the clinic, he had access to adaptive equipment, trained instructors, and a supportive group of peers, which gave him the confidence to challenge himself and get back up on that mountain. Don shared that experiencing the outdoors again in a setting designed with access and support in mind allowed him to connect with and reconnect with parts of himself that he thought were gone.
He told us, being mindful of how much we miss while we're serving on active duty, I can't thank you enough for letting me experience more of the country that I defended. And Joseph, an Ohio marine veteran managing PTSD and a traumatic brain injury, who just recently participated in a Project Odyssey Experience in Asheville, North Carolina, which included a hike in the beautiful Blue Ridge Mountains. Joseph shared that the combination of nature and pure camaraderie helped reduce feelings of isolation and reawakened his desire to try new things. Encouraging one another up the mountain created a renewed sense of purpose and connection. For Joseph, access was not just about the trail.
It was about confidence, clarity, and feeling safe enough to engage. These stories highlight why careful implementation of the Explore Act is key to ensuring its vision of expanded outdoor access becomes a lived reality for veterans. As the sections entitled to are implemented, we recommend focusing on a few core principles. First, accessibility information must support independent planning, not just guided or organization-facilitated use. Second, the information must be specific, consistent, and practical so veterans can understand what to expect before they arrive.
And third, accessibility must be integrated into broader recreation systems in ways that feel inclusive rather than separate or symbolic. Inventories of facilities and trails should capture details veterans actually need to make decisions, including grades, surfaces, restrooms, parking, transportation access, wayfinding, and safety considerations. Pilot programs should test scalable solutions that improve clarity and usability without compromising the natural character of public lands. Promotion efforts should measure success by distributed information and whether veterans are aware of using and returning to these spaces independently. When done well, accessibility supports the transition.
It builds confidence and allows more veterans to experience our public lands as places of healing, connection, and belonging. In closing, Wounded Warrior Project thanks the subcommittee for its commitment to veterans and for advancing the EXPLORER Act. We are honored to contribute to this conversation and stand ready to continue working with you and federal agencies to ensure the implementation reflects the realities and the potential of the veterans we serve. Thank you, and I look forward to your questions.
Speaker 2
Thank you, Miss Elias. I now recognize members for five minutes of questions. I turn to the chairman of the full committee, Mr. Westerman, for your question.
Speaker 4
Thank you, chairman Tiffany, and thank you again to the witnesses for being here today. My first question is for the entire panel. In my opening statement, I mentioned in our efforts to reauthorize the Great American Outdoors Act that we wanted to direct some of this funding towards recreation infrastructure improvements, including for accessibility that may not be classified as deferred maintenance. So how could expanding the Great American Outdoors Act in this way help create dedicated funding that would help actualize the goals of Title Two in the Explore Act? And, Mister Stone, great to see you here today.
We'll start with you. And if anybody has comments, we'd love to hear that.
Speaker 6
Yeah. Great to see you again as well. Hopefully, you'll make it back out to Wyoming in the near future. That's an interesting question. I think well, I think what we have in the Explore Act is interesting.
So we have these trails that we're trying to create. They're gonna work for the majority of people with mobility disabilities. And I think when you get people with disabilities involved, you start to see that there's a lot more, as you saw at Taggart Lake, there's a lot more that people with disabilities are able to actually accomplish than just the baseline or the most accessible trails that can be out there. So I think when we start expanding into these other areas like you mentioned and we get people with disabilities involved, we start to see a lot more open up on our public lands than just these small projects that are put into place for the most accessible areas. And we start to see people with disabilities of all kinds being able to explore and go far more places than a lot of people think, but also be able to challenge themselves and grow as a human and grow as a community as they go into more technical environments, further into the mountains, deeper into the rivers.
I don't know if that necessarily answers your question, but I think it's important that as we expand into all of these other areas, we are looking beyond just the checked boxes, and we're using that funding to create access on so many other levels. That's the kind of thing you can only really get when you include people with disabilities in that process, to be able to have a true understanding of what can be done.
Speaker 5
Thank you, Chairman Wasserman, for that question. I think on face value, my initial reaction is that's a pretty good idea. Problem that I see is GAOA is basically been created to address the trail maintenance backlog, which is terrible and growing even, now, even more steeply now. And I think diluting that goal could be problematic because, you know, I think it could build bipartisan support for the reauthorization for sure, but I don't I'm worried that the GAOA's success in the future after the next five years of its efforts would be judged on how much deferred maintenance it's eliminating.
Speaker 4
So do you think as we do deferred maintenance on these trails, modifying the trails for accessibility, do you think that should be allowed?
Speaker 4
kind what we're getting at here. Yeah. Yep. And let's give the other two an opportunity, and we'll come back to you, mister Stone.
Speaker 7
Thank you for the question, sir. I'm going to defer to my colleagues as far as the intricacies of the answer to your question. However, I will just flag that a big priority for PVA and their members is, it always starts in the parking lot. Right. Critical resources are needed to ensure that accessible, particularly van, parking spaces are available.
We see this at VA facilities. We see this at shopping centers. The difference between a handicap accessible vehicle and a van accessible parking space, that's feet. That's whether or not you can even get out of your vehicle to go access those outdoors. And so for us, we always say it starts in the parking lot, sir.
Speaker 8
I'll be brief because I know we're short on time. But I think any time you add additional resources to anything, you're going to help make it better. The concern becomes the blurring of boundaries. However, to me, it makes a lot of sense to add resources so that as the maintenance occurs, you can build in the accessibility accommodations on the wayside. The one thing I would ask as you look at this is we're focusing a lot in many of these hearings and in the reports that have been put out around architectural accessibility.
And I wanna just encourage you to perhaps include some language around those with cognitive disabilities to make sure that we're including, like, tactile and other sorts of less terrain-related accessibility modifications as you add this additional resourcing. So I think that would be very valuable. Thank you.
Speaker 4
I had a whole bunch of questions, and we only got to one of them and didn't even have time to answer that thoroughly. But we'll submit these questions, so you can give us handwritten answers back for the record. I appreciate you all, and I yield back.
Speaker 9
Thank you so much to all the witnesses for sharing your perspectives on the implementation of the EXPLORER Act. The EXPLORER Act is all about increasing access to our public lands, including for veterans, for individuals with disabilities, and for young people. And, in my district, the Olympic National Park welcomed more than 3,500,000 visitors in 2025. Statewide, our outdoor recreation economy generates over 25,000,000,000 annually, ensuring adequate staffing and full funding is essential not only to protecting wildlife and resources, but also to the visitor experience. And I heard just the end of that series of answers.
It seems like we have more to do. Just maintain trails, clean bathrooms, trash cans that are regularly emptied and not overflowing. Those are so important to the experience of folks. And at the bare minimum should be, like, a priority of our national park service. And all these things are made harder when our federal workforce is under attack and shrinking.
Last year, the national park service lost 25% of their staff from budget cuts, from hiring freezes, and from other factors. And to make matters worse, the forest service also lost 9,000 workers who preserve those trails and keep our public lands accessible. It's hard to think about how we expand into, you know, more interpretive park experiences when we're hardly able to keep the trails maintained and the trash cans empty. National parks and forest service workers are performing two, sometimes three jobs to do the work to make our parks safe and welcoming to visitors. And on top of that, national park staff across the Western US are being sent here to Washington DC for months-long details.
And the forest service relocation and reorganization plans may impact as many as 200 staff in the Washington state. This administration isn't just firing and forcibly relocating staff. They're also wiping out the funding for the programs that ensure our public lands are protected for generations to come. I heard from a neighbor in Hoodsport who grew up dreaming about being a park ranger and is now a part about to start his third season as one. He told me that many of his colleagues have already had their jobs rescinded for the summer, and he's worried that any day now he'll be next.
But he's not even concerned about himself. He told me, I'm concerned about what the future holds for the park that is so near and dear to my heart. What happens when we fall short of staff, when we're already stretched thin, when millions more visitors come to see our wonderful parks? And we want that. We want millions more visitors to come, to be able to access, to have the accommodations that they need to access our beautiful parks.
And it's not possible when we are short-staffed. Laura from Port Angeles also wants to know how the park can safely handle the millions of visitors in the summer without backcountry rangers, booth fee collectors, front desk personnel, maintenance, and trail workers. I have all the same questions as Laura. And, you know, I try to experience our natural resources and our federal lands as often as I can when I'm home. And learning from folks who are doing this work on the ground is why I think that we need to keep fighting for appropriations and robust funding for our federal trails.
But a few examples of what the president's proposed budget does is that it cuts the forest service recreation, heritage, and wilderness program by 27%, cuts the forest service trail maintenance construction program by 64%, zeros out 18,000,000 in funding for technical assistance to localities for cohesive rivers, trails, and conservation assistance, and cuts by 47% BLM's recreation infrastructure, access improvements, and permitting modernizations. That sounds bad to me. Miss Hall, Mister Paso, could you elaborate on how, you know, these proposed budget cuts and relocations impact the accessibility and the goals of the EXPLORER Act?
Speaker 5
Thanks for that question. I do think it makes it almost impossible to implement it fully. I'm very worried about it, to be honest. And there's, you know, I have mentioned in my opening that we have a grant program where several of the people that we, you know, we have the funding encumbered, and it's ready to go, but they can't get the sign offs on their Forest Service land. And that's throwing away thousands of volunteer hours, or at least delaying them when they could be getting some real important accessibility or trail maintenance or anything done on public lands.
Speaker 7
I just wanted to make sure. Thank you for the question, ma'am. We share concerns that without appropriate resources, these deferred maintenance projects and other accessibility work may be delayed. As I wrote in my written testimony, one of our advocacy attorneys is working with one of our members on a federal property that has an accessibility barrier that is on the list. But for a year or so, that keeps being deferred.
And while the project is designed and they know how to fix it, they don't have the resources to implement it. And that's just one small project in one park, in one person. And so we have concerns about making sure that there's enough resources and staff to be able to see this bill come to its full potential. Thank you.
Speaker 2
Gentlemen, ladies, time has expired. Now recognize the gentleman from Minnesota, Mr. Staubert.
Speaker 11
Thank you very much, Chairman Tiffany. And, to the witnesses, thank you very much, Mr. Paso. Mister Stone, your testimony is very interesting and heartfelt. Thank you for taking the time to come and speak to us. Miss Howell, in your written testimony, you raised concerns about how various federal agencies interpret the term wheelchair in federal statutes and regulations.
Can you please expand upon this?
Speaker 7
Yes, sir. Thank you for the question. I believe in the hearing memo that was provided, they also stressed that, when our staff was working with committee staff, drafting the MVP Act, that something that we frequently ran into was that the antiquated definition of a wheelchair is gonna be something that different agencies run up against. We also were able to speak with National Park Service accessibility officers, and they've seen issues with that definition as well. I'm not sure if in the next big bill that the committee works on in a bipartisan fashion, maybe we can amend it.
But the truth of the matter is when we write the term wheelchair fifty years ago, with all the advancements that we've talked about today in technology, we need to make sure that these long standing definitions and features that we've relied on historically, that we're making sure to pay attention to updating that language as well.
Speaker 11
So what you're saying is different land management agencies like the BLM, Park Service, and Forest Service. Along with the Department of Veterans Affairs, they're interpreting this differently. Correct?
Speaker 11
And are you seeing inconsistencies in the interpretations across different units of a single land management agency? In other words, is the park service interpretation consistent across all national parks, or is the forest service interpretation consistent across all national forests?
Speaker 7
Sir, based on the conversation that I've had with an NPS staffer, I believe that different agencies are pulling different things. So there may not be an equitable understanding of the term wheelchair even across the agencies.
Speaker 11
Yeah. That's why we're hearing the same thing. I appreciate that. Miss Elias, can you please speak to the roles that outside organizations or individuals play in veterans accessing our public lands, whether they be veteran service organizations or independent cooperators or concessioners, that provide guide services to the public?
Speaker 8
Absolutely. Thank you for that question. The roles that organizations play in getting veterans outdoors is helping for many of us, you know, accessing national parks is not something that we think of doing in the first place. We don't know how, wasn't comfortable. And so organizations such as Winter Warrior Project and other organizations that are out there become that comfortable gateway, that handholding to make sure that we know how to access, how to use, especially as we're living with disabilities that we have acquired versus disabilities we're born with.
They help us learn how to navigate those, just as Mister Stone spoke about earlier, how to navigate those now with the lived limitations that our bodies have and the new abilities that we're developing because of that.
Speaker 11
Thank you. And just to provide some context, in Northern Minnesota, home to places like Voyagers National Park and the Chippewa and Superior National Forest, we've been fighting this issue for years. At Voyagers, we've seen complicated policies put into place that are making it even harder for guides that operate under cooperative agreements within the Park Service. Just walk away simply because the Park Service makes it too hard and too expensive to operate. And on the Superior National Forest, we've seen VSOs blocked from providing towboat or motorized use access for disabled veterans, preventing veterans from accessing and enjoying, including areas like the Boundary Waters.
So my wife and I are blessed to have a Down syndrome child, and his diagnosis is severe and profound. He has a difficult process walking on uneven surfaces. I don't think any one of these panelists would disagree with that statement. It is not fair that he cannot walk on these uneven surfaces to see the beauty in this land. We are all about accessing for all, all four of you and our special needs children.
And this is what we have to continue to push. That's why Mister Stone, Mister Paso, Miss Hollow, Miss Elias, that's why your testimony is extremely important. We're gonna get this done together so we all, mister Paso, can enjoy our federal lands. Because you are in a wheelchair, you should not be disallowed to have access to our entire federal force and enjoy it. Like you said, and it struck me that after your accident, you're talking about how are you gonna get back out there.
You should be able to get back out there. It's not fair. It's not right. And I know that this is a bipartisan issue that we can fix, and we're gonna fix it because everybody deserves to go and have access. Everybody deserves to have an opportunity to have motorized access to cross hilly terrain if they can't walk or in a wheelchair.
To see those parts, to get to that fishing hole that you want in our national parks and wilderness areas. Mister Chair, ranking member Dexter, thank you for holding this. This is really key.
Speaker 2
I yield back. Gentlemen, yields. I now recognize Miss Dexter for her questioning.
Speaker 3
Yeah. Thank you so much. And what an important conversation. I'm deeply grateful to everyone for bringing this forward today. I will just note that my team and I were on the Timberline Trail last summer in the National Forest, Mount Hood National Forest.
And there had been a year prior tree fall that was blocking the trails. So we had backpacks, couldn't get across. I absolutely have experienced the deferred maintenance for even those who are abled, let alone those with disabilities. So this is an important issue. And I want to underline the importance of us actually having the staff to clear those trails and to maintain those areas.
I also want to just make sure I double down on something my colleague, Representative Staubert, just talked about, that everyone should have access to, that we absolutely want to make that possible. I also heard that there was some confusion around the definition that we are dealing with here. And I am surprised by that because there's one definition, and it is in the Americans with Disabilities Act in Section 507 of the ADA. And it actually refers specifically to the Wilderness Act. And so I wonder why there would be confusion about what that definition is.
And, certainly, if we need to create, you know, a broader definition, we should be using a central statute for that because we don't want our national forests and our National Park Service and BLM lands to be using a different definition than our hospitals or our other areas. Now, this is specific to the Wilderness Act. So, Mr. Paso, I want to ask you some questions around stalled projects and the impact on everyone's accessibility to this. And, also, for you in particular, you know what accessible trails look like.
And do you, I'm happy to go through the wheelchair definition, but I think that you have personal experience on that. So we'd love for you to pontificate a little bit about the relative importance of trail maintenance writ large, and also what it means for people with disabilities to be able to access it and be able to truly access it.
Speaker 5
Thanks. Thank you for that question. I think, I guess, just referring to the definition of a wheelchair, I think I'm back in night, I'm sorry. In the nineties, I worked on a project to define wilderness access and what, you know, how the wheelchair definition fits in. And we did a bunch of research.
It's called the wilderness access decision tool, and we came down to kind of a simple question, like, would you be kicked out of a mall if you used that device? And I think the key to the definition is the suitability element. You know, is this suitable for indoor use? And that, you know, comes down to, you know, the size of the piece of adaptive equipment and the speed it's used. You know, if you're in a rogue or, you know, one of the really high end new kind of adaptive equipment, you wouldn't be kicked out of a mall for using it unless you're going 50 miles an hour.
You know? So I think that all still applies. And then in terms of the, you know, like, kind of what an accessible trail looks like. I think I've always said much like Mister Stone just articulated, it's 80% of accessibility is information. It's if I know that I can get down a trail and that there's gonna be a narrow spot that gets me to, you know, 29 inches and my wheelchair or my, you know, adaptive equipment is 29 inches wide, I know I can get by.
And, therefore, I know that my family and I have a wonderful experience. And no money had to be spent on.
Speaker 3
To also reiterate something I heard Miss Howell say, to be able to get to that point, you have to actually be able to get into a parking lot and be able to get that mobility device out. In your experience, is that a broadly available opportunity for people in our national parks and national forests?
Speaker 5
I would say it it's pretty hit or miss depending on the use it gets. You know, obviously, national parks are much more accessible at that entry level, but there are exceptions. Forests and BLM land is a whole other ball of wax. And, honestly, I personally, this is just my personal opinion, but I appreciate the ability to know that I'm gonna have a dirt parking lot and the experience is gonna be much more rugged. And if I choose that, then that, you know, is still accessible to me.
And, we don't want everything to be paved. I think we've all said that over again.
Speaker 3
Yeah. I appreciate that. And just to, with your grace, mister chair, having information about where those places are so you can make that decision ahead of time is critical. So before we start really doing much else, I think we need the survey. So, thank you.
I yield back.
Speaker 2
General Lady yields, and I share this document with the ranking minority member. And I'm gonna take my five minutes for questioning. So, mister Paso, it's great to have you here in Washington, DC. And I really liked your use of the word recreate, because it is the truth that it's enjoying Northern Wisconsin just as you do. I certainly feel that way.
So do you have any specific examples, mister Paso, like in the Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forest, which is our national forest in the state of Wisconsin, where you have concerns that could be addressed by some changes to explore?
Speaker 5
Specific examples, I guess, would, you know, especially in Shukwamia National Forest, if you've been up there, there's a lot of really great logging roads that actually provide pretty wonderful accessibility, but a lot of them have dug them out and piled up dirt so that they've bermed them? Berm. Yeah. They've put per holes and berms to stop cars from going down there. And that, you know, with a little bit of modification, that could be adjusted to be more accessible for an example.
Speaker 2
Go ahead. Yeah. I would just add. So we had a hearing in Hayward a year ago on this issue for access into specifically the Chewamaga and Nicolet, and we use that as an example, that is going on across the country as we're seeing was it, like, 2,000 miles of trails on our national forest, both BLM and national forest land, is being closed down every year. So access is being limited, and this has been going on for a couple of decades.
And I don't know about you, but it's certainly a concern for me. I don't know if you share the same concern.
Speaker 5
Yeah. I do. I mean, the one of the things that I discovered in breaking my back is that when you when something is taken away from you that allows you to recreate yourself, it causes a visceral reaction. It hits you right in your soul, you know, when that happens. And, therefore, you're gonna people are gonna be inordinately upset about it.
And I think, you know, whether it's closing down a motorized route that had historic use, without thoroughly thinking through the process or for any reason, pulling away a person's ability to recreate themselves is gonna create a very strong reaction, it's gonna cause a lot of the multiuse conflict that we see these days. So I think we need to be very careful about closing roads. It does need to happen sometimes for, you know, natural resource protection reasons, but it shouldn't ever be flippantly done.
Speaker 2
Yeah. Well, I appreciate those comments because I want you to know that we're fighting to keep those trails open that have been used for decades and across generations, not just in Northern Wisconsin, but across America. And it's important to have that access. Miss Elias, as we go forward with this, how can we better leverage organizations like yours to expand access and do it more quickly?
Speaker 8
Thank you for that question, sir. There are so many different things that I want to say, and I'm gonna try to keep it truncated. I think, first off, I believe you mentioned it in your opening remarks. If veterans don't know that these opportunities are out there, they're not gonna utilize them. So I think one of the best ways to work with organizations like ours is to make sure that we have the information so that we can share it out to our membership, especially since we're often the gateway to the outdoors for so many veterans.
I think too similar to what mister Pastos talked about is we have hundreds of volunteers that would be happy to support and serve as we're implementing the sections of title two of the EXPLORER Act. So using us as pathways for information, as well as using us for the service that we can provide, is probably two of the best ways that you can utilize organizations like ours.
Speaker 2
Thank you very much for that. Thank you to all the panelists. I am going to yield back, and I recognize Miss Leger Fernandez for your questioning.
Speaker 10
Thank you so very much, and I so appreciate reading the testimony. You know, we had a hearing out at Grand Tetons and hiked up a trail that's gonna become available and accessible. And it was great. It was so great because when we go out in nature, we experience awe. Right?
And we realize both how insignificant we are and how connected we are, not just to nature, but to each other, in an interesting way. I find it fascinating. I love that we are doing this, that the EXPLORER Act is making it possible. We need to do more, so everybody knows it's there. I like the testimony that talked about that.
So, Elias, you actually pointed out some of, sorry, Miss Elias. You pointed out some of those recommendations about how we can better serve our veterans. And can you sort of give me a quick story, maybe of how improving accessibility actually helps veterans who experience cognitive disabilities from their service?
Speaker 8
Sure. Absolutely. I'd love to share that with you. So, you know, living with a cognitive disability or living with a mental health disorder, one of the things that we don't always recognize as a symptom is it is easy to become disoriented. And so ensuring that pathways are very clear and intentionally marked, and that we have access to that information before we get there, can help alleviate a lot of the stress and anxiety so that we're able to mitigate and minimize anything that might cause our stress levels to raise so that we have more space for the anxiety that just comes from being outdoors and being in nature naturally.
And so, you know, one of the things I think I've talked about in my testimony that's written is just making sure that language is clear and making sure that it's accessible. And a lot of times we think accessible is like just putting it on the website. But some of our veterans also live with a vision impairment. And so making sure that those assistive devices and tools are able to read and utilize and feed to the veteran that information is one of the best ways to do so. In my oral remarks, I talked about a veteran named Joseph who's navigating life with TVI and PTSD, and how the ability to get outdoors almost helped find him a renewed sense of purpose in life and an excitement that he did not have before that outdoor experience.
Speaker 10
Thank you. Thank you. And, you know, the EXPLORER Act is great about how it's opening up these new opportunities for veterans. I will also point out that the Veterans Affairs Department has cut 40,000 positions since President Trump took office, and 88% of those cuts were to the Veterans Health Administration. And veterans absolutely deserve access to our parks.
They also have earned access to a doctor and the health benefits, that it's not a deserve. It's an earn. They suffered for us, and we need to provide those benefits in our parks and in our hospitals. I'm also worried a bit about this concept of feeling welcome that I heard throughout and I read throughout, that right now the Trump administration has made certain communities feel less welcome at national parks by trying to erase history. Under President Trump's executive orders, the Forest Service has been directed to remove signs across the country.
Some of those signs being removed are about the forced removal of Native Americans, the practice of slavery. They targeted the Enola Gay that had gay in its name. And I think that there is something about the journey we are all on together is overcoming obstacles. And that's, in many ways, what veterans have done is they are the ones who have led us in that journey together from the revolution of ROR to the civil war and moving forward. Miss Mister Paso, how does a censored history at National Parks impact the sense of belonging for the very communities that the EXPLORER Act aims to serve?
If you could speak to that.
Speaker 5
Yeah. Thank you for that question. I do think, you know, as I stated before, that the EXPLORER Act is about everybody getting access in whatever way they can to our public lands, and that everybody is the critical component. It includes people with disabilities, people of color, Native Americans. It's a cross the board look, which I think is important.
You know, it's what makes the Explorer Act kind of unique and also something that everybody can really buy into and feel a part of, and it's the reason that it's so bipartisan.
Speaker 10
Yeah. I love that everybody includes everybody. What a concept. I'd like to, I'll yield back, but I'd like to seek unanimous consent, mister chair. I'd like to seek unanimous consent to enter into the record the national park signs related to Native Americans' climate change need to be removed.
And among the national parks targeting the new removal orders of some of the country's most iconic, Grand Canyon, Glacier, Big Bend, and Zion, dated 01/27/2026.
Speaker 2
Without objection, the gentlelady yields. I have turned to Miss Stansbury for her questioning.
Speaker 1
Good morning. I wanna just start by welcoming all of you for coming and traveling all across the country to be here with us today. And for those of you who are here joining us in the room or watching from at home who have served this great nation and are veterans, we wanna say thank you for your service as well. I'm very excited to be here today to celebrate our nation's 250th birthday by celebrating a critical bipartisan bill that we passed just two years ago in this Congress to help expand opportunities for our communities to experience the wonder, the joy, and the exceptional need to connect with nature through our great outdoors. And in particular, a bill that is so near and dear to my heart, which is a bill that we pass to expand access for veterans and people living with disabilities to experience the great outdoors.
The EXPLORER Act helps more families, more students, more veterans, and more communities explore and experience the outdoors, especially in the landscapes that so define our country and what it is. It represents one of the most significant, comprehensive, and bipartisan recreation packages that we've passed in this body in years. Recreation infrastructure, federal lands, rural gateway communities, expanded opportunities for underserved communities. It extended every kid outdoors program for school-aged children. And, of course, it included our bill, which is a bipartisan bill to expand accessibility on our federal lands.
I was particularly grateful for the opportunity to have it included in this package, working with chairman Westerman and alongside Juan Siskemani of Tucson. This legislation directed the secretary of the interior and of agriculture to conduct a comprehensive assessment of accessibility across our trails, our campsites, our recreational facilities. Because for far too long, as has been discussed here this morning, we've lacked a clear understanding of where those accessibility gaps actually exist. And so helping to identify where those gaps are is very important to make sure that our communities can actually experience the great outdoors. And in New Mexico, we understand deeply how central our public lands are to our communities and our cultures.
Nearly half of our state is publicly owned, but these are places where our families gather, and traditions are passed down. There are lands that have been sacred and important to our communities for countless generations, where people go hunting and fishing, and where they find restoration, resilience, and connection. And in New Mexico, the importance for veterans cannot be overstated. More than 130,000 veterans call New Mexico home. Service is a part of our culture, our identity, and who we are as New Mexicans, and ensuring that our veterans have access to our trails and campsites and recreation areas is also essential for the healing powers of the outdoors.
Ensuring that they can access these landscapes not only strengthens their own well-being, but is part of the long-term resilience and support for our communities in New Mexico. So I'm excited to celebrate the passage of this bill, especially on Earth Day. And I wanna just go back to our witnesses. We have two here who are joining us from veterans organizations, and I know you've covered a lot of ground already about this. But I wonder if we could give sixty seconds each to Miss Hall and to Miss Elias to talk about the importance for veterans of accessing the great outdoors and what else this body can do to help support our veterans.
Speaker 2
Unfortunately, you've only given them about 65 seconds for the two of them. You may answer.
Speaker 7
Thank you for the question, ma'am. As a former New Mexican, who deployed with the Mexico National Guard, I share your enthusiasm for the beauty and wonder that is the land of enchantment. I think it's critical that we see the EXPLORER Act for everything that all of the committee members that work so diligently to pass it, we need to see it reach its full potential. As we as all of us have kinda harped on this hearing, that's gonna take staff, that's gonna take resources, that's gonna take partnerships, and it's gonna take interagency cooperation. And I think as long as the right people are at the helm and as long as the folks who believe in the mission are driving that conversation, which includes people with disabilities, which is billed to targets, I think we'll make serious progress.
Speaker 8
I think, along with the comments I've already shared today, thank you for the opportunity, ma'am. Intentional implementation is key here. Right? What we do, and as we enact the measures of this bill, it needs to be built in versus bolted on. So it can't be the afterthought.
It needs to be something that's absolutely intentional from the moment that we start implementing this program, which I think we've seen happen through the reports that are there. And we stand by to share the experience and the expertise that we've developed over the programs that we provide for veterans, and we're happy to anytime you need us. I think, also, one thing we haven't talked about that I just want to highlight a little bit is communicating the effect and the impact of weather on trails. As we're talking about plain and clear communication, you know, a slate pathway is gonna become quite different to transgress once it's wet. And so that needs to be a part of that plain, clear communication that we're sharing with our folks that are accessing the parks.
Thank you.
Speaker 2
Gentlemen, ladies, time has expired. I'd like to thank the witnesses for your testimony today, and the members for your questions. Members of the subcommittee may have some additional questions for you, and we will ask the witnesses to respond to those in writing. Under committee rule three, members of the subcommittee must submit questions to the subcommittee clerk by 5 PM on Monday, 04/27/2026. The hearing record will be held open for 10 business days for those responses.
If there is no further business, without objection, the subcommittee on federal lands stands adjourned.
Ask anything about this video — I analyse its transcript to answer.