Biscayne National Park needs $60 million in building repairs across its 34 structures, and the federal law funding national park maintenance expires in September.

The park's maintenance tab is part of a $346 million deferred repair bill shared by South Florida's three national parks and Big Cypress Preserve, a figure that has nearly tripled in five years, WLRN reported Monday. Statewide, the backlog has ballooned to $687 million.

For Key Biscayne residents who boat, dive and fish in the 300-square-mile marine park at their doorstep, the numbers translate into aging docks, deteriorating visitor facilities and infrastructure that supports more than 500,000 annual visitors.

The law on the clock

The Great American Outdoors Act, signed in 2020, funneled $9 billion over five years into national park repairs nationwide, funding more than 500 projects. In Florida, the money paid for dock repairs near Fort Jefferson in the Dry Tortugas and shored up eroding land around the Jupiter Lighthouse.

But no completed projects at Biscayne itself have been publicly identified, and the nationwide backlog still grew from $20 billion to more than $35 billion during the law's five-year run.

"Much of our parks and public lands infrastructure was built out many, many years ago at the very inception of our public lands," Rebecca Knuffke, senior officer for U.S. conservation at The Pew Charitable Trusts, told WLRN. "We know just like in our homes, if you don't take care of maintenance it can become costlier to take care of over time."

Reauthorization push

A successor bill, the America the Beautiful Act, cleared the House Natural Resources Committee on June 24 with bipartisan backing from Chairman Bruce Westerman, R-Ark., and ranking member Jared Huffman, D-Calif. The measure would send $1.9 billion annually to federal land agencies for another five years, up from the original law's roughly $1.3 billion per year.

Two-thirds of House members have co-sponsored the bill, and more than half the Senate supports it, according to Knuffke. But Congress left for summer recess before a floor vote, and both chambers are not expected back until early September.

Workforce and budget headwinds

Even if the money flows, the Park Service faces a staffing crisis. The agency has lost roughly 24 percent of its permanent workforce since January 2025, according to the National Parks Conservation Association. The Trump administration's fiscal year 2027 budget proposes cutting park operations by $736 million, though it supports reauthorizing the maintenance fund.

Local economic stakes

A 2020 National Park Service report found Biscayne parkgoers spent $46.2 million on hotels, gas, restaurants and other local services. Miami Waterkeeper CEO Rachel Silverstein described the bay in an April National Parks Traveler feature as "the jewel that we have built our community around," noting it supports real estate, tourism and agriculture.

The Florida National Parks Association announced $500,000 in 2026 support for Biscayne and three other South Florida park units, but advocates say private dollars cannot substitute for the scale of federal investment the reauthorization would deliver.

Congress returns in early September. The America the Beautiful Act needs floor votes in both chambers before the current law expires.