Wednesday, Jan. 14, 2026 | 2 a.m.
Editor’s note: Este artículo está traducido al español.
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto, D-Nev., is accusing the Trump administration of stonewalling her requests for data on the U.S. tourism industry’s decline, leaving Nevada’s economy in limbo amid falling visitor numbers.
In a Nov. 24 letter to the White House, the senator warned that the administration’s policies — specifically funding cuts to the tourism-marketing group Brand USA and ongoing tariff uncertainty — threaten jobs in one of the nation’s most tourism-reliant states.
Cortez Masto’s push underscores broader concerns as Las Vegas faces what many are calling a “Trump slump” in visitation.
Tourism supports roughly one in four Nevada jobs, according to the U.S. Travel Association, and Brand USA has been credited with bringing in billions in visitor spending nationwide since its creation in 2010.
In her letter, Cortez Masto urged officials to detail policy effects on tourism, requesting responses by year’s end after the Trump administration offered minimal insight to similar requests she made in a letter sent in April 2025.
The year-end request passed with no response from the White House.
“That’s why I keep asking. I was just in a conversation with (U.S. Trade Representative Jamieson Greer) about this very issue,” she told the Sun. “What I would like to see, and I think many in the delegation would like to see, is this administration prioritizing tourism and travel.”
During oversight hearings, Cortez Masto said Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent told her that he understood the White House policies’ effect on tourism and was willing to work on the issue. But when it comes to followup, Cortez Masto said, it’s “just not there.”
She has also been pushing the administration to nominate an assistant secretary of travel and tourism within the Department of Commerce.
Congress created the position through legislation in 2022 and funded it in 2024. U.S. Travel Association President Geoff Freeman said the assistant secretary would help coordinate “across the government to help innovate travel facilitation and address persistent challenges.”
“You need to fill these positions,” Cortez Masto said of the Trump administration. “We’ve had individuals identified for these positions, and this administration has never put them in.”
Nevada’s delegation in the House of Representatives, including Republican Mark Amodei, wrote Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick in March 2025 to press him on filling the new position.
Cortez Masto on Wednesday signed on as a cosponsor to legislation to restore funding to Brand USA, which was cut by 80% in the Republican-led “One Big Beautiful Bill” to $20 million in federal matching funds.
The bill, called the Vital Investment in Sustaining International Tourism to the USA (VISTA USA) Act, was first introduced in November by a bipartisan group of representatives and senators. That original Senate cohort included U.S. Sen. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., as well as colleagues from Florida, West Virginia, Minnesota and Alaska. The House version has Nevada Democratic Rep. Dina Titus as a cosponsor.
Both bills have been assigned to committees in their respective chambers, but they have not been assigned a hearing date. Cortez Masto said the act’s supporters would first try to get the legislation passed through committee on its way to floor votes; if that’s not possible, she suggested supporters would find another vehicle to move it through Congress.
Nevada Democrats have labeled 2025’s tourism downturn the “Trump slump,” citing figures from the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Authority showing a 7.4% drop in Las Vegas visitation through November compared with 2024. International arrivals at Harry Reid International Airport fell 6% over the same period, with steep declines from Canada amid trade tensions and annexation rhetoric from President Donald Trump.
The decline isn’t totally to blame on Trump. Reports of price gouging on the Strip that proliferated on social media in the spring and summer, along with the general malaise in the U.S. economy, also contributed to a visitor dropoff. In September, the LVCVA tried to address that with its “Welcome to Fabulous” initiative spotlighting resort discounts.
“Las Vegas is an internationally renowned travel destination, and tourism drives the Nevada economy, supporting good-paying, union jobs. Unfortunately, President Trump’s reckless policies have created chaos in our travel industry,” Cortez Masto said Wednesday in announcing her cosponsorship of the VISTA USA Act.
