California land swap consolidates park and forest management
S. 2881 — A bill to provide for the transfer of administrative jurisdiction over certain Federal land in the State of California, and for other purposes. · Filed by Alex Padilla (D-CA) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Sep 18, 2025 · Reported out
Your members of Congress
Enter a ZIP to see where your representative and both senators stood on this bill.
Looked up on this device — your ZIP is never stored on our servers.
What it does
This bill swaps administrative control of two parcels of federal land in Tuolumne County, California: 160 acres of National Forest land transfers from the Forest Service to the Interior Department to be managed as part of Yosemite National Park, while 170 acres of National Park land transfers from Interior to the Forest Service to be managed as part of Stanislaus National Forest. The bill preserves existing rights, permits, and hazardous-substance cleanup obligations for both agencies.
Why we flagged it
The bill's sole operative function is to transfer administrative jurisdiction over two adjacent parcels of federal land between the National Park Service and Forest Service to improve management efficiency and ecological coherence. This is routine interagency land administration, not a policy innovation or carve-out.
What the text implies
- The swap may facilitate future conservation or recreation planning by consolidating management of the Ackerson Meadow area under single-agency authority, reducing coordination overhead.
- Hazardous-substance liability remains with the transferring agency, preventing cost-shifting but potentially creating long-term cleanup obligations if contamination is discovered post-transfer.
- The bill grants both agencies mutual authority to adjust survey boundaries by Federal Register notice, which could enable minor boundary corrections without further legislation—a streamlined process that reduces administrative burden but requires transparency via publication.
Section numbers refer to the bill text the analysis read — linked under Primary records below.
Who it affects
The land swap consolidates management authority and may improve ecosystem stewardship by aligning contiguous parcels under single-agency jurisdiction. Citizens benefit from clearer management responsibility and reduced administrative friction. No restrictions on public access, rights, or protections are evident; existing permits and authorizations are preserved.
Named in the bill
U.S. Department of the Interior, U.S. Department of Agriculture (Forest Service), Yosemite National Park, Stanislaus National Forest, Tuolumne County, California
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Democrats.
- Sep 18, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Sep 18, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.”
- Feb 4, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment favorably”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 lobbying clients named this bill on 3 disclosure filings across 2 quarters, Dec 2025 to Jun 2026. Those filings disclosed $239,430 in lobbying spend. A filing names 13 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 61% of bills with at least one filing.
Alex Padilla, the sponsor, reported $176,500 in PAC receipts in the 2026 cycle.
- National Parks Conservation Association — $139,430 on 1 filing
- Cepi-u.s. — $80,000 on 1 filing
- The Trust for Public Land — $20,000 on 1 filing
Lobbying Disclosure Act filings through Jul 18, 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 (4,793 characters) on Aug 21, 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 18, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“California land swap consolidates park and forest management” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2881 Report an error
The week in bills
One email, Sunday: what Congress passed, what it changed, and who paid.
One link arrives to confirm the address. It is used for this email and nothing else, and every issue carries an unsubscribe link.