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Congressional Research Service
Version 00 · Introduced in House · Jan 3, 2025
Yosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act
This bill modifies the Raker Act, which allowed San Francisco to dam the Hetch Hetchy Valley within Yosemite National Park, to (1) increase the annual rent San Francisco pays to the National Park Service (NPS), and (2) direct the NPS to expand public access to the reservoir and lake created by the dam.
Specifically, the bill increases rent paid by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission for the use of the park from $30,000 to $2 million per year. That amount must be adjusted annually to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers. The commission may not recoup such sums from wholesale water or power customers. The bill allows collected rent to be used by the Department of the Interior for wildfire mitigation activities in the park and other national parks in California.
The bill also requires the NPS to administer the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas for public recreation, benefit, and use in a manner that will preserve scenic, historic, scientific, or otherwise important features.
People & committees
Rep. McClintock, Tom [R-CA-5] · R–CA
Legislative record
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Referred to the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries.
Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources.
Introduced in House
Introduced in House
Primary sources
Text links open the official source. We also preserved the text version used in the PlainBill explanation below.
No related bills are listed in this snapshot. This does not establish whether the proposal has appeared in earlier Congresses.
Source last updated: Sep 11, 2026. Consult Congress.gov for the current record.
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PlainBill explanation
Based on the full Introduced in House · 2025-01-03 text. This explanation has not received human editorial review. This overview describes the proposal’s major provisions; it does not establish what its real-world effects would be.
The proposed Yosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act would allow swimming, non-motorized boating, camping and other recreation around Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin, subject to federal restrictions and compatibility with the areas’ designated uses. It would also increase a statutory payment amount from $30,000 to $2 million and prevent the payer from recovering that money from its wholesale water or power customers.
This Act may be cited as the Yosemite National Park Equal Access and Fairness Act.
Subject to such limitations, conditions, and regulations as the Secretary determines necessary, the following activities shall be allowed within the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas for recreational purposes if such activities are not inconsistent with the designated primary or recreational use of each such area: (1) Swimming. (2) Use of non-motorized watercraft. (3) Camping in and around each such area if such camping is not below the respective ordinary high-water marks of each such area. (4) Picnicking in and around each such area. (5) Other recreational activities the Secretary determines appropriate.
(i) by striking $30,000 and inserting $2,000,000; and (ii) by inserting and adjusted annually to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers after July of each year; (B) by inserting The grantee may not recoup said sums from wholesale water or power customers of the grantee. after the first sentence;
The bill would replace the $30,000 amount in section 7 of the 1913 law with $2 million and add annual adjustments for increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers, a measure of consumer-price inflation. The existing payment provision is not reproduced in full.
The Act of December 19, 1913 (38 Stat. 242), is amended— (1) in section 7— (A) in the first sentence— (i) by striking $30,000 and inserting $2,000,000; and (ii) by inserting and adjusted annually to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers after July of each year;
The bill would prohibit the holder of the grant under the 1913 law from recovering those payments from its wholesale water or power customers.
(B) by inserting The grantee may not recoup said sums from wholesale water or power customers of the grantee. after the first sentence;
The bill would add wildfire mitigation activities after the reference to “other improvements” in section 7 of the 1913 law. The surrounding statutory sentence is not supplied, so the full effect of that addition cannot be determined from this text alone.
(C) in the second sentence, by inserting and wildfire mitigation activities after other improvements;
The Interior Secretary, acting through the National Park Service Director, would administer both areas for public recreation, benefit and use. The Secretary would have to preserve their important scenic, historic, scientific and other features, and preserve, develop and enhance their recreation capacity to the extent practicable.
The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the National Park Service (in this section referred to as the Secretary), shall administer the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas— (1) for public recreation, benefit, and use; (2) to the extent practicable, in a manner that will preserve, develop, and enhance the public recreation capacity of each such area; and (3) in a manner that will preserve the features of each such area that are scenic, historic, scientific, or otherwise important.
Swimming, non-motorized boating, picnicking and camping would have to be allowed when consistent with each area’s designated primary or recreational use, subject to restrictions the Secretary considers necessary. Camping could not be below the ordinary high-water mark. The Secretary could also determine that other recreational activities are appropriate.
Subject to such limitations, conditions, and regulations as the Secretary determines necessary, the following activities shall be allowed within the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas for recreational purposes if such activities are not inconsistent with the designated primary or recreational use of each such area: (1) Swimming. (2) Use of non-motorized watercraft. (3) Camping in and around each such area if such camping is not below the respective ordinary high-water marks of each such area. (4) Picnicking in and around each such area. (5) Other recreational activities the Secretary determines appropriate.
Motorized and non-motorized vehicles would be allowed on roads needed to reach the areas for permitted recreation, provided that use has no negative effect on operating or maintaining any dam-related facility there. The Secretary’s restrictions and the requirement for compatibility with designated uses would also apply.
Subject to such limitations, conditions, and regulations as the Secretary determines necessary, the following activities shall be allowed within the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas for recreational purposes if such activities are not inconsistent with the designated primary or recreational use of each such area:
(6) Use by motorized and non-motorized vehicles of roads required to access each such area to conduct activities described in this subsection if such use has no negative effect on the operation or maintenance of any facility associated with a dam within each such area.
Within one year after enactment of section 2, the Interior Secretary, acting through the National Park Service Director, would have to report to the appropriate congressional committees. The report would examine whether recreational access since the areas were created has followed the original intent of the 1913 law. This is a required inquiry, not a finding that access has violated that intent.
(b) Report Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this section, the Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Director of the National Park Service, shall submit to the appropriate congressional committees a report that includes the following: (1) An analysis of whether the original intent in the Act of December 19, 1913 (38 Stat. 242), regarding access to the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas for recreational purposes has been followed since such areas were created.
The report would also examine how collecting revenue and allocating funds could best support equitable public recreational access. It would have to consider maintenance and support costs, including trail maintenance, road improvements, and wildfire prevention and suppression.
(2) An analysis of how revenue collection and the allocation of funds related to the administration of the Hetch Hetchy Reservoir and Lake Eleanor Basin areas can be carried out to best provide equitable access to such areas for recreational purposes by the public, including consideration of— (A) maintenance and support costs of such areas, including— (i) trail maintenance; (ii) road improvements; and (iii) wildfire prevention and suppression;
The report would have to consider ways to offset those costs: changing water and power prices, treating San Francisco as a concession operator, and adding an amount to the city’s annual rental fee based on the annual value of benefits that would be lost if the areas had not been created, including recreation and flood control. This reporting requirement would require consideration of these options; it would not itself implement them.
(B) ways to mitigate such costs, including— (i) adjusting the prices charged for water and power generated by the Hetch Hetchy Water and Power System created by the Act of December 19, 1913 (38 Stat. 242); (ii) treating the City of San Francisco as a concessioner; and (iii) adding to the annual rental fee charged to the City of San Francisco by section 7 of the Act of December 19, 1913 (38 Stat. 242), the annual monetary value of the benefits that would be lost if such areas had not been created, including consideration of— (I) recreational activities; and (II) flood control.
The supplied action snapshot, updated September 11, 2026, records introduction and referral to the House Committee on Natural Resources on January 3, 2025, followed by referral to the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries on September 10, 2026.
Source snapshot updated 2026-09-11T08:05:49Z. 2026-09-10: Referred to the Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries. 2025-01-03: Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources. 2025-01-03: Introduced in House
A closer look
Reviewed version: Introduced in House · 2025-01-03. These findings describe provisions and who may benefit; they are not judgments of waste, corruption, or motive.
This review covers the supplied bill text. “None identified” does not rule out provisions in later versions or accompanying reports and disclosures.
Provisions outside the bill’s main subject, or policy changes attached to appropriations.
None identified in the reviewed text
No unrelated provision or policy change attached to appropriations was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion does not establish absence in other versions or accompanying materials.
Spending directed to particular recipients or places outside ordinary competitive or formula-based allocation.
None identified in the reviewed text
No congressionally directed spending allocation for a particular recipient or place was identified in the complete supplied introduced text. This conclusion is limited to that version and does not establish formal earmark status in materials not supplied.
Narrow exceptions, exemptions, or preferential treatment that warrant a closer look.
Findings to examine
The supplied introduced text contains a narrow protection against recovery of specified payments from a defined customer group. This classification does not assess whether the protection is justified.
The grantee’s wholesale water and power customers would receive a specific protection: the grantee could not recover the amended section 7 payments from them. This limits how the grantee may pass along the payment increase associated with the bill’s recreation and financing changes.
(1) in section 7— (A) in the first sentence— (i) by striking $30,000 and inserting $2,000,000; and (ii) by inserting and adjusted annually to reflect increases in the Consumer Price Index for All Urban Consumers after July of each year;
(B) by inserting The grantee may not recoup said sums from wholesale water or power customers of the grantee. after the first sentence;
Full text preserved for this analysis. Legislative record snapshot: Sep 11, 2026. How PlainBill uses AI