Bill would make Route 66 a National Historic Trail, with limits on land taking

Congress would add the Route 66 National Historic Trail to the National Trails System, and the Secretary of the Interior would administer it in a way that respects its "idiosyncratic nature." The trail would include all alignments of U.S. Highway 66 that existed between 1926 and 1985, about 2,400 miles from Chicago, Illinois, to Santa Monica, California. The Secretary would have to consult affected Indian Tribes before any activity on the trail with substantial direct impacts on them. The trail map, dated December 2017, would be available for public inspection at the Interior Department.

The bill would limit federal land acquisition for the trail, ban eminent domain, and say the trail creates no buffer zone around it. The United States could not acquire land outside federally managed areas without the owner's consent, or land extending more than an average of a quarter mile on either side of the trail. The Secretary could not use eminent domain or condemnation. Activities that can be seen or heard from the trail would not be restricted because of it.

The designation would not stop or slow energy development or transmission, add new permit requirements, or change who can grant easements and rights-of-way. It applies to the trail and the land it crosses, and it would not make the trail land part of the National Park System for one Mineral Leasing Act rule.