Utah bill lets ATVs use 13 roads in Capitol Reef National Park.
S. 2970 — A bill to authorize the use of off-highway vehicles in certain areas of the Capitol Reef National Park, Utah. · Filed by Mike Lee (R-UT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Oct 3, 2025 · Reported out
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What it does
This bill allows off-highway vehicles to drive on 13 named roads. These roads are inside Capitol Reef National Park in Utah. Utah state law will control vehicle use on those roads. Federal park rules will no longer apply to those roads.
Who it affects
Off-highway vehicle users in Utah will be able to drive in the park. Hikers and campers may see more vehicle traffic on those roads.
One thing to notice
Control of vehicle rules moves from the federal government to Utah state law.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Oct 3, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Oct 3, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Dec 9, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on National Parks. Hearings held”
- Sep 30, 2026 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment in the nature of a…”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
2 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Dec 2025 to Dec 2025.
Those reports show $159,430 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 28 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 41% of bills with any report.
Mike Lee, who sponsored the bill, received $241,000 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- National Parks Conservation Association — $139,430 in 1 report
- Coalition to Protect Americas National Parks — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- off-highway vehicles — Vehicles made to drive on dirt roads and rough land, like ATVs and dirt bikes.
- Capitol Reef National Park — A large protected area in Utah owned by the federal government for nature and recreation.
- 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 (1,429 characters) on Jun 6, 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 Dec 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 Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-10-20.
“Utah bill lets ATVs use 13 roads in Capitol Reef National Park.” QuorumCivic. https://share.quorumcivic.app/bill/119/s2970/simple Report an error
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