Congress Acts to Protect Access to National Parks for Kids

Washington, D.C.– Today, the Every Kid Outdoors Act passed out of the House Committee on Natural Resources as part of a larger legislative package on outdoor recreation. The Every Kid Outdoors Act would continue an existing program that ensures every student in U.S. schools has free access to national parks in their fourth grade year.

This program has served millions of students, but is expected to end this year unless Congress acts to protect it from Ryan Zinke’s Department of the Interior. Zinke recently told Senators at a hearing that the passes for fourth graders were problem for national parks, arguing that: “When you give discounted or free passes to elderly, fourth graders, veterans, disabled, and you do it by the carload, there's not a whole lot of people who actually pay at our front door.”

The 21st Century Conservation Service Corps Act was also included in the package, and would provide career pathways for youth and young veterans in conservation, particularly veterans returning from deployment.

In response, Jackie Ostfeld, Director of Outdoors for Sierra Club, issued the following statement:

“Every fourth grader in the United States has had the chance to visit their national parks for free. But if we leave it up to Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke, he will quietly eliminate this program and cut off kids from access to their own national parks. He already pointed to this program as a revenue loss for our national parks in a recent Senate hearing.

“Secretary Zinke might not see the value in getting fourth graders outdoors, but Sierra Club does. Today kids are spending less time outdoors than any generation in history. It’s no coincidence that kids born today have a shorter life expectancy than their parents. We need this program to maintain our kids’ connection with nature, and to protect public health. It’s time to pass the Every Kid Outdoors Act.”