Arkansas Delta National Heritage Area Act

Core Policy Mechanism Top 1

Establish Arkansas Delta National Heritage Area

Creates a new National Heritage Area covering 17 counties in eastern Arkansas, with Arkansas State University Heritage Sites as the managing entity. Requires a management plan within 3 years and sets a 15-year limit on federal assistance.

• Population Scope Low The designation directly affects residents and landowners in 17 eastern Arkansas counties, a geographically narrow population well under 1% of the U.S.
• Budgetary Magnitude Low No specific dollar amount is authorized or appropriated; the bill invokes the existing National Heritage Area System funding framework without adding new appropriations.
• Legal / Regulatory Depth Medium The bill creates a new statutory designation and assigns a named local coordinating entity with a mandatory management-plan submission duty — a new procedural obligation binding a specific non-federal institution under federal oversight, but not a substantive mandate across a broad regulated population.
• Degree of Discretion Granted Medium The Secretary of the Interior (DOI) retains approval authority over the management plan and administers federal assistance, granting meaningful but bounded discretion within the existing National Heritage Area framework.
• Implementation & Enforcement Burden Low The sole compliance obligation is Arkansas State University Heritage Sites submitting a management plan within three years; no new enforcement mechanisms, penalties, or recurring adjudication are created.
• Temporal Commitment Low Federal assistance authority explicitly terminates 15 years after enactment, a hard expiry within 10-plus years that nonetheless self-terminates without congressional action.