S. 1277 would allow the National Park Service (NPS) to acquire an additional 980 acres of land to include in Mammoth Cave National Park in Kentucky. Of the land, 550 acres are currently owned by The Nature Conservancy, a nonprofit organization. The other 430 acres are owned by multiple landholders. 

Using information from the NPS and the nonprofit, CBO expects that the organization would sell its 550 acres to the NPS for roughly $1 million within the first year of enactment and that the NPS would use the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) to pay for that land. Amounts in that fund are available to acquire and maintain land by land management agencies without further appropriation. Acquiring the additional 430 acres would depend on the NPS reaching agreements with individual landholders. Based on information from the NPS, CBO expects that most landholders would not be willing to sell in the next several years.