Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2024

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEHLS. Mr. Speaker, my amendment prohibits the National Park Service from placing any limitation on the number of air tours at our Nation's parks. There are over 45,000 commercial scenic air tours over our national parks every year. These air tour operators provide that breathtaking experience for visitors that should remain, if not even increase.

I have been following this issue for quite some time now, and I don't think people really fully understand what is going on here. Two decades ago, Congress passed the National Park Air Tourism Act which required the National Park Service and the Federal Aviation Administration to work together to develop air tourism management plans for any park that had 50 or more annual air tours over its landscape.

After 20 years of bickering and bureaucratic incompetence, jurisdictional fights between Federal agencies, and the actions of what we would see in a kindergarten, neither the National Park Service nor the FAA had completed their congressional mandate.

An effort was spearheaded by radical environmentalists whose sole goal is to end air tours because they think noise ruins the experience of visitors and the animals who live there.

As a result of these efforts, in 2019, a court ordered that any park hosting 50 or more sightseeing air tours a year develop a management plan by August 2022. Twenty-four parks are named in the resulting court order, and some of these parks developed plans that will drastically reduce the number of air tours or outright ban them.

This is completely nuts. Did they depose an elk or a moose or a trout and find that these air tours offend them? Give me a break.

These air tours are not reserved for the millionaire and billionaire class, as some of my colleagues like to pretend. They are utilized by families, the disabled, the elderly, and middle-class Americans.

I will also point out that the level of noise from our air tours is decreasing every year with technological advances and investments from our air tour operators, not to mention many of the flights fly at an altitude that people on the ground wouldn't even notice.

If there are any Democratic staffers or Members listening to this right now, I would like them to answer this question. We hear a lot of talk about fairness, equity, and civil rights, but if we reduce or phase out air tours, then what is your plan for the disabled or the elderly? How are they supposed to traverse these landscapes? Where is the fairness there?

Air tour operators offer a crucial alternative for individuals who cannot easily walk the often treacherous terrain of our national parks. I understand some of these more radical environmentalists believe these flights disrupt the natural landscape and experience because of noise, but what about the families that have children who are disabled or those who want grandma and grandpa to participate in that family vacation? Who is advocating for them? Where is the sympathy for them? And who the hell are we to deny them that experience?

Let's do the right thing and save our air tours and ensure access for our elderly and the disabled by supporting my amendment.

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Mr. NEHLS. Mr. Chair, I yield to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gosar).

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Mr. NEHLS. Mr. Chair, I couldn't agree more with my colleague from Arizona.

The only ones against this, it appears, are the environmentalists because I haven't talked to a moose or an elk or a trout that has found these tours offensive.

Mr. Chair, I yield back the balance of my time.

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