Cover Page MENU     Contents     Preface     1908-1940     1947-1967     1968-1972     1973-1974      1975-1980     1981-1982     Conclusion     Research Note     Appendix		Visitor Fees in the National Park System: A Legislative and Administrative History V. CONFLICTING PRESSURES; CONGRESS PUTS THE LID ON 1975-1980 "Single Visits" and Handicapped Permits, 1976-1980 The ill-conceived Public Law 93-81 that killed the camping fees in 1973 also broadened the definition of a "single visit" so that entrance charges would not be levied each day a visitor remained in a park. But the law allowed a visitor to leave and return without repayment only on the first day, penalizing those who were camping or using other services outside park boundaries (page 50). In 1976 a bill was introduced in the 94th Congress to remedy this situation by authorizing a new class of permit good for multiple visits during a 15-day period. (The "series of visits" permit authority in the original Land and Water Conservation Fund Act had been eliminated by the 1972 amendment to the act.) In commenting on the bill, the Interior Department recommended instead that a "single visit" be redefined to allow holders of the existing permit "a more or less continuous stay" for up to 15 days, depending on the nature of the area. [22] The bill passed the House unchanged but was not acted upon by the Senate before the Congress adjourned. In the next Congress Representative B. F. Sisk of California introduced a new bill with the language recommended by Interior. Although it too failed of enactment, its content was incorporated in an omnibus bill passed by the 96th Congress and approved September 8, 1980. The relevant paragraph of Public Law 96-344 repealed the "single visit" definition added by Public Law 93-81 and reamended the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act to specify: A "single visit" means a more or less continuous stay within a designated area. Payment of a single visit admission fee shall authorize exits from and reentries to a single designated area for a period of from one to fifteen days, such period to be defined for each designated area by the administering Secretary based upon a determination of the period of time reasonably and ordinarily necessary for such a single visit. [23] Superintendents of entrance fee parks were subsequently asked to recommend for Washington Office approval the single visit time periods to apply at their areas. Two bills in the 95th Congress (1977-78), Goodloe Byron's containing the entrance fee freeze and another introduced by B. F. Sisk, called for free park entrance permits for blind and disabled persons. [24] This provision, tightened to restrict such permits to those eligible for benefits under Federal law, was enacted during the following Congress as another component of Public Law 96-344. Like the Golden Age Passport, the permits entitled their holders to a 50 percent discount on user fees for special recreation facilities as well as free entry. The Golden Access Passport, as it was administratively designated, was issued beginning in 1981. NEXT> Losing Control of the Receipts, 1980 22H.R. 11061; letter, Assistant Secretary Ronald M. Coleman to Rep. James A. Haley, Aug. 10, 1976, WASO-535. 23H.R. 5802, 95th Congress; S. 2680, 96th Congress; 94 Stat. 1135. 24H.R. 5524, H.R. 5801. 25P.L. 90-401, July 15, 1968, 82 Stat. 354; P.L. 92-347, July 11, 1972, 86 Stat. 459. (The quoted language was included in both acts but did not become effective until 1972.)
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