Federal lawmakers have introduced the Voluntary Public Access Improvement Act to boost a crucial farm bill program that creates public hunting and fishing opportunities on private land.
The Voluntary Public Access Improvement Act of 2025 has been introduced in the Senate by Sens. Steve Daines, R-Montana, Michael Bennet, D-Colorado, and Roger Marshall, R-Kansas, and in the House by Reps. Debbie Dingell, D-Michigan, and Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota.
This bipartisan, bicameral bill would strengthen one of the farm bill programs for America’s hunters and anglers—the Voluntary Public Access Improvement Act. VPA-HIP is the only federal initiative that helps to create public hunting and fishing opportunities on private land and this new legislation reauthorizes the program at triple its prior funding level.
This reinforces the full farm bill that House Ag Committee Chairman GT Thompson’s introduced last Congress, which proposed a similar funding increase to this critical program.
“State-led access programs are hurting this year without support from VPA-HIP, and including the Voluntary Public Access Improvement Act in a 2025 farm bill would be a major positive development for hunters and anglers,” said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership. “We are thrilled to see such an influential, bipartisan group of leaders recognize the importance of increased hunting and fishing access by introducing this legislation. Thank you, Sens. Daines, Bennet and Marshall and Reps. Dingell and Johnson, for your leadership and support.”
The legislation would invest $150 million over the next five years in the VPA-HIP, which provides grants to states and Tribes to be implemented at the local level. This increased investment was among the recommendations made by TRCP’s Agriculture and Wildlife Working Group in its farm bill platform and has been echoed by groups across the hunting and fishing community.
“This legislation will support and enable landowners to provide fishing access on private lands, opening valuable waters to anglers,” said Glenn Hughes, president of the American Sportfishing Association. “The reauthorization and expansion of VPA-HIP will strengthen a program that has allowed access to private lands since 2008, creating memorable days on the water for America’s anglers.”
“As duck hunters across the country look for additional access, increased investments in VPA HIP can lead to new partnerships with private landowners to enhance habitat and also provide access,” said John Devney, chief policy officer at Delta Waterfowl. “We hope that the effort by these leaders will lead to a broader bi-partisan effort to include an expanded VPA-HIP in the final farm bill.”
“There are dozens of state programs throughout country that help open public hunting access on private lands, but one common thread is that VPA-HIP is the unsung hero that makes much of that access possible,” said Ariel Wiegard, vice president of government affairs for Pheasants Forever and Quail Forever. “The economic returns for rural communities in VPA-HIP have been shown many times over, and increasing funding for the program is one of our top priorities in the next farm bill.”
Apart from creating more outdoor recreation access, VPA-HIP funding is also utilized to provide technical and financial assistance to landowners for wildlife habitat improvement and enhancement projects. It is often layered with other farm bill programs that have habitat benefits, such as Conservation Reserve Program and Wetland Reserve Easements. And the program allows states to address liability, alleviating a roadblock for many landowners to open their lands to the public.
Studies estimate that the VPA-HIP has a more than eight-to-one return on investment in the form of outdoor recreation spending in rural communities.
