Bill gives landowners veto over public trail conversion, blocks recreation access
H.R. 4924 — Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act · Filed by Sam Graves (R-MO) · 6 cosponsors · Introduced Aug 8, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill amends the National Trails System Act to impose strict new requirements on states, local governments, and private organizations that want to convert abandoned railroad rights-of-way into recreational trails. Before a trail can be built, landowners whose property the railroad crosses must give signed approval, and the trail sponsor must compensate them at fair market value for costs including lost development opportunities. The bill also requires a 90-day public comment period, a cost-benefit analysis weighing safety, health, privacy, and economic impacts on landowners, and perpetual maintenance of the right-of-way by the trail sponsor. It establishes an advisory committee dominated by landowners and rail carriers to recommend maintenance standards.
Why we flagged it
The bill's operative mechanism is not to facilitate trail conversion but to erect procedural and financial barriers that empower landowners and rail carriers to block or delay it. The title 'Rails to Trails Landowner Rights Act' accurately names the beneficiary (landowners), but the civic effect is to restrict public access to recreational infrastructure.
What the text implies
- The 'fair market value' compensation standard, including 'lost development opportunities,' may price trail conversion far above what trail sponsors can afford, effectively killing projects in high-value real estate areas and favoring wealthy landowners.
- The requirement for signed approval from every affected landowner creates a de facto veto: a single holdout can block a trail that would benefit an entire community.
- The advisory committee is stacked 6-to-2 in favor of landowners and rail carriers over trail sponsors, ensuring recommendations will favor narrow private interests over public recreation.
- Perpetual maintenance obligations on trail sponsors may become unsustainable, leading to trail abandonment or deterioration, undermining the public benefit of conversion.
- The cost-benefit analysis requirement, while appearing neutral, is framed to highlight 'economic impact on owners' and 'lost development opportunities,' biasing the analysis against trail conversion.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
Ordinary citizens lose access to recreational trails and public greenways. The bill prioritizes landowner and rail-carrier interests over public recreation by imposing compensation at 'fair market value' (including lost development opportunities), requiring signed approval from every affected landowner (creating a veto), and mandating perpetual maintenance costs on trail sponsors. These barriers will prevent or delay trail conversion, reducing public outdoor recreation opportunities.
Who stands to gain
- landowners along railroad rights-of-way (compensation at fair market value plus lost development opp
- rail carriers (advisory committee representation, easement narrowing pressure reduces future rail li
Named in the bill
Surface Transportation Board, Secretary of the Interior, Secretary of Transportation, National Trails System Act, rail carriers, trail sponsors, landowners
Where it stands
6 cosponsors: 6 Republicans.
- Aug 8, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Aug 8, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Referred to the House Committee on Natural Resources”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
4 lobbying clients named this bill on 4 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $2,550,000 in lobbying spend. A filing names 28 bills on average, so that figure is what each filing reported, not a share belonging to this bill.
More lobbying clients named this bill than 72% of bills with at least one filing.
Sam Graves, the sponsor, reported $885,013 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle. $5,000 of that came from 1 PAC tied to these lobbying clients.
- Association of American Railroads — $1,260,000 on 1 filing
- Bnsf Railway Company — $960,000 on 1 filing
- Csx Corporation — $310,000 on 1 filing
- East Bay Regional Park District — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 20, 2026. A filing shows who paid to lobby on a bill it names, not what changed.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,592 characters) on Oct 26, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,580 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jul 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-26.
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