Trump signs 13 bills in six days, creating Chiricahua National Park and extending drilling-permit fees

By Staff Reporter

WASHINGTON — With lawmakers away campaigning, President Donald Trump has signed 13 bills into law in less than a week, among them a measure that makes Arizona’s Chiricahua the newest national park and another that keeps money flowing to the federal office that processes oil and gas drilling permits.

Trump signed three Senate bills on Oct. 15 and 10 House bills on Oct. 20, according to White House announcements. The laws are numbered 119-122 through 119-134, bringing the 119th Congress’s total to 134 public laws. Most are narrow: land transfers, a tribal water settlement, studies and training requirements. All passed both chambers before lawmakers left Washington to campaign.

A new national park

The Chiricahua National Park Act, sponsored by Rep. Juan Ciscomani (R-Ariz.), redesignates Chiricahua National Monument, about 12,000 acres of volcanic rock spires near Willcox in southeastern Arizona, as a national park. The site was first protected as a monument in 1924. “This new designation will shine a national spotlight on one of Arizona’s hidden gems, creating opportunities to welcome more visitors, strengthen local economies and share this incredible landscape with more Americans,” Interior Secretary Doug Burgum said in a National Park Service announcement.

As introduced, the bill also directed the Park Service to protect traditional cultural and religious sites, to give members of Indian tribes access to them, and allowed temporary closures of small areas at a tribe’s request, according to the Congressional Research Service summary. The Park Service said the area is the homeland of the Chiricahua Apache.

Drilling permit fees

The License to Drill Act, from Rep. Mike Kennedy (R-Utah), extends the Interior Department’s authority to collect fees on applications for oil and gas drilling permits, the White House said. The Congressional Research Service summary of the bill as reported in the House says it extends the Bureau of Land Management’s fee authority, which had run through fiscal 2026, through fiscal 2037. The fees go to a fund that pays for processing permits.

Dating apps and trafficking training

The Romance Scam Prevention Act, sponsored by Rep. David Valadao (R-Calif.), requires online dating services to send a “fraud ban notification” to users who received messages from an account the service banned for fraud, the White House said. Under the CRS summary of the introduced bill, the notice must identify the banned account and warn that the person may have used a false identity. The Enhancing Detection of Human Trafficking Act requires Labor Department employees to be trained to spot trafficking and help law enforcement.

Two of the 13 sponsors are Democrats: Rep. Emily Randall of Washington, whose bill takes about 1,083 acres into trust for the Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe while barring gaming on the land, and Rep. Bennie Thompson of Mississippi, whose bill transfers land in Vicksburg National Military Park to the state for an interpretive center.

Congress returns Nov. 9, with a Dec. 11 government funding deadline, an unfinished defense policy bill and a permitting overhaul waiting.

The Inquisitor sent requests for comment Thursday morning to the White House press office, the Interior Department, the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management and the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The White House press office pointed to the National Park Service’s announcement and to posts by Interior Secretary Doug Burgum on X, and the Bureau of Land Management acknowledged the request. The others had not responded by publication.

Photo: Chiricahua in southeastern Arizona. National Park Service / Wikimedia Commons, public domain.