Congress makes outdoor access free for all fourth and fifth graders
H.R. 5541 — Every Kid Outdoors Reauthorization Act · Filed by Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) · 19 cosponsors · Introduced Sep 23, 2025 · Referred to committee
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What it does
This bill makes permanent the Every Kid Outdoors program, which gives fourth and fifth graders free passes to federal lands and waters. It expands eligibility to include home-schooled children ages 10–11, authorizes $25 million annually for operations, transportation for low-income schools, and targeted outreach to underserved communities and children with disabilities.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to expand and permanently fund a youth outdoor-access program, with explicit focus on equity (transportation for low-income schools, targeted outreach to underserved communities and children with disabilities).
What the text implies
- Permanent authorization removes need for periodic reauthorization votes, reducing legislative churn on a bipartisan program.
- Transportation funding may require coordination between Interior/Agriculture departments and school districts, creating implementation dependencies.
- Eligibility expansion to home-schooled children ages 10–11 broadens reach but may require outreach infrastructure to reach dispersed populations.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The bill expands free outdoor access for children, particularly targeting low-income schools and underserved communities, and provides transportation support to remove barriers to participation. This is a direct public good with no offsetting cost to citizens.
Named in the bill
National Park Service, U.S. Department of Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Every Kid Outdoors program, Public Law 116–9, 16 U.S.C. 6804
Where it stands
19 cosponsors: 19 Democrats.
- Sep 23, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in House”
- Sep 23, 2025 — Referred to House Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure and House Committee on Agriculture · Congress.gov: “Referred to the Committee on Natural Resources, and in addition to the Committees on Agriculture, and…”
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 6 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $707,000 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.
Yassamin Ansari, the sponsor, reported $234,033 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- American Heart Association — $400,000 on 1 filing
- Sierra Club — $180,000 on 2 filings
- Direct Primary Care Coalition — $70,000 on 2 filings
- Kaboom! — $57,000 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 (1,307 characters) on Sep 5, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,222 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 2026-10-20.
“Congress makes outdoor access free for all fourth and fifth graders” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/hr5541 Report an error
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