Troy Nehls: “My amendment prohibits the National Park Service from placing any limitation on the number of air tours at our Nation's…”

“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. {time} 1330 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.…”