The Alliance for the Wild Rockies based in Helena, Montana has been campaigning for the legislation for two decades with the help of numerous Congresspersons, celebrities, and grassroots groups such as the Sierra Club and the Wilderness Society.
The total includes 3 million acres (12,000 km2) in Yellowstone, Glacier and Grand Teton national parks.
Carolyn B. Maloney, representative from the 14th district of New York most recently introduced the bill on November 3, 2011, and it had 34 cosponsors as of December 4, 2012.
[4] The singer Carole King, a resident of Custer County, Idaho, has testified before Congress in 1994, 2007 and 2009 in support of the act.
Economics professor Tom Power, Ph.D. from the University of Montana has found that industries based on extracting resources from the land are more prone to "boom and bust" economic cycles, creating ghost towns, and unstable living conditions, while economies that are based around wilderness areas are more sustainable and have higher than average job growth rates.