Route 66 becomes a historic trail with no land protection.
S. 2887 — Route 66 National Historic Trail Designation Act · Filed by Ted Cruz (R-TX) · 5 cosponsors · 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 makes Route 66 an official historic trail. It covers about 2,400 miles from Chicago to Santa Monica. The government cannot buy private land without the owner's permission. The trail cannot have buffer zones around it. Energy projects can keep going as planned.
Who it affects
People who visit Route 66 may see maps and learn its history. Private landowners along the route keep full control of their land. Energy companies can build projects near the trail without new delays.
One thing to notice
The bill names Route 66 a historic trail. It does not protect the trail from nearby factories, mines, or power lines.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
5 cosponsors: 4 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- 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”
- Jul 21, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held”
- Jul 29, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported without 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
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 1 reports from Sep 2025 to Sep 2025.
Those reports show $365,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 26 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Ted Cruz, who sponsored the bill, received $547,115 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Specialty Equipment Market Association — $365,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- buffer zones — Areas of land next to something that protect it from nearby activities.
- historic trail — A path or route officially recognized for its importance to history.
- private land — Land owned by people or companies, not by the government.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (5,322 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 16,778 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 Sep 2025 to Sep 2025. 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 May 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-11-01.
“Route 66 becomes a historic trail with no land protection.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2887/simple 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.