EXPLORE ACT BECOMES LAW
The “Expanding Public Lands Outdoor Recreation Experiences Act” (EXPLORE Act), HR 6492, was recently signed into law by President Biden. The new law which was supported by the Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA), establishes an important, comprehensive public lands law that will improve the permitting process for motorized recreation events on federal lands and bolster the economic impact of outdoor recreation businesses, including manufacturers, retailers, guides and local businesses nationwide.
The EXPLORE Act, which had strong bipartisan support throughout Congress, will increase access to outdoor recreation opportunities to help grow the outdoor recreation industry’s $1.2 trillion annual economic impact.
“The opportunity of outdoor recreation is one of our nation’s treasures, an asset that unites us across state and party lines,” said SEMA President and CEO Mike Spagnola. “The people whose passion is to traverse the outdoors is matched only by those who innovate and develop the products that help them do so, and that’s why this law is so important. It’s about our economy, our quality of life and our ability to share with more people all of our nation’s natural wonders.”
The EXPLORE Act directs the U.S. Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) to create more motorized opportunities on public lands, addresses special recreation permits and fees that have been expensive and cumbersome for off-road groups to navigate on federal lands, attempts to improve visitor experiences, addresses the lack of affordable housing causing staffing shortages on public lands and transforms outdoor recreation experiences for active-duty military members, veterans and Gold Star families.
You can find more information about the major provisions of the legislation by reviewing the section-by-section outline. For additional information on the EXPLORE Act, contact Eric Snyder, SEMA’s senior director of federal government affairs, at erics@sema.org.
