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A U.S. House committee on Wednesday advanced legislation to allow bicycles and wheelchairs in wilderness areas, a measure supported by Montana's Rep. Greg Gianforte.

After initially voting down House Resolution 1349 Wednesday, the House Natural Resources Committee voted to reconsider and then passed the bill to the full House of Representatives. The resolution, brought by Rep. Tom McClintock, R-Calif., would amend the 1964 Wilderness Act to “to permit the use of bicycles, strollers and other human powered wheeled implements, and motorized and non-motorized wheelchairs in wilderness acres.”

The legislation lifts a blanket ban imposed by the U.S. Forest Service in the 1970s on bicycles, McClintock told the committee.

“There are places where (bikes) are appropriate and others where they’re not, and land managers should be able to make that judgement without a one-size-fits-all prohibition,” he said.

McClintock continued, saying that the original intent of the Wilderness Act never included a bicycle ban, and that mountain bikers should have just as much of a right to access as other recreationists. The Forest Service violated congressional intent when it issued the ban, he added.