President Barack Obama signed the omnibus public lands bill March 30.

The bill protects more than 2 million acres of new land from California to Virginia. Several parcels are in Colorado.

Rocky Mountain National Park will get 316,000 new acres of wilderness that were originally recommended in 1974 by President Richard Nixon.

Dominguez Canyon, near Grand Junction, will acquire 60,000 acres of protected land.

The bill is the largest expansion of wilderness lands in 15 years.

According to the U.S. House Resources Committee, the bill has about $10 million in expenses, an amount that made the bill unpalatable to U.S. Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo.

Coffman voted against the bill in the U.S. House on procedural grounds, but released a statement on the spending after the Senate passed the bill.

“When there is a $9 billion maintenance backlog on the Park Service land that we already have, why are we spending $10 billion that we will have to borrow to acquire even more land?” Coffman asked.

Environment Colorado worked for passage of the bill.

“Today, President Obama gives an icon of America’s great natural heritage the protection it deserves,” said Matt Garrington, field director of Environment Colorado. “Rocky Mountain National Park is a symbol of beauty for our state and our country.”

Included in the bill is the Christopher and Diana Reeve Paralysis Act, which will expand paralysis research at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda, Md., and improve quality of life and health issues through the Centers for Disease Control.