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Tucked inside the defense authorization bill that the Senate passed Friday was an unrelated public lands package that's set to bring the biggest expansion to the National Park Service in decades.
Despite some conservative opposition—a chorus that skewered the legislation as a pork-barrel land grab—the measure also establishes thousands of acres of new wilderness areas. The bill designates seven sites as official national park units, many of which place a special emphasis on history, such as Manhattan Project work sites in New Mexico, Tennessee and Washington State.
Grand Canyon, other national parks