Congressman Darrell Issa's continued assault on the propriety of national park stimulus funding in House of Representatives legislation drew a harsh response Tuesday from the National Parks Conservation Association, which accused the Republican of libeling the organization.

The congressman, the ranking member of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee, first questioned the parks' appropriation two weeks ago, noting that House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey is the father of NPCA's senior vice president for government affairs, Craig Obey.

Specifically, Rep. Issa, R-California, pointed out that Rep. Obey inserted $2.25 billion for the parks in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act at a time when the Senate figured $800 million was enough. And so, he wondered, did Craig Obey and the NPCA -- which has called for $2.5 billion in stimulus funding for the parks, a number the advocacy group arrived at with input from the National Park Service -- personally lobby Rep. Obey to secure the funding?

While Rep. Obey's staff has said the $2.25 billion figure stemmed from a request from Rep. Norm Dicks, D-Washington, a long-time parks advocate well aware of the Park Service's roughly $9 billion maintenance backlog, and while the NPCA maintained that it has a firm policy that no one on its staff lobby Rep. Obey personally so as to avoid any appearance of impropriety, Rep. Issa refused to back down.

On Tuesday the Republican had the oversight committee's staff issue a 10-page report (attached) that more than lightly questions Craig Obey's influence with his father when it came to securing the funding in the House bill. (Due to the funding difference in the Senate bill, which now carries about $589 million for the parks, a conference committee will have to reach a compromise on park funding.)

The National Parks Conservation Association was successful in securing a $2 billion earmark set aside for the National Park Service in the House economic recovery legislation. This result, however, is clouded by a perception of a conflict of interest between Appropriations Chairman David Obey and his son Craig Obey, the chief lobbyist of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), and false denials by Chairman Obey and the House Appropriations Committee about the lobbying activities of the Chairman’s son. Failure to disclose this information in advance of the debate on the stimulus package raises further questions about whether the Association’s ability to affect funding streams for the National Park Service are influenced by the relationship of Chairman Obey and his son.

As evidence, Rep. Issa had the staff fashion another 59-page document that was compiled from NPCA's stimulus document, Working Assets: Reinvesting in National Parks to Create Jobs and Protect America's Heritage, and the group's 2008 lobbying disclosure form. In that disclosure form, Rep. Issa pointed to an April 2008 entry in which the NPCA listed Craig Obey as a lobbyist on two appropriations measures:

HR 2830 To authorize appropriations for the Coast Guard for fiscal year 2008, and for other purposes.
S I 696 An original bill making appropriations for the Department of the Interior, environment, and related agencies for the fiscal year ending September 30, 2008, and for other purposes.

Rep. Issa's documentation, while indicating that Craig Obey and other NPCA lobbyists approached members and/or staff of the House Appropriations Committee on Coast Guard appropriations, does not show that anyone from NPCA specifically approached Rep. Obey on the stimulus legislation.

Still, the 10-page report concludes by stating that, "(T)he success of NPCA and Craig Obey in doubling the National Park Service's annual appropriation through the economic recovery legislation raises the question of whether family ties payed a role. The seriousness of this potential conflict should have been disclosed to all Members before the vote took place."

In a strongly worded release issued later Tuesday, NPCA officials accused the congressman of maligning their group and ignoring the needs of the National Park System and its nearly 300 million annual visitors.

"Congressman Issa is perpetuating unfounded claims that do little to advance the important agenda of creating jobs in this uncertain economy—something an investment in our national parks would do," the advocacy group said. "National parks are national treasures in 49 states, visited by nearly 300 million people annually and benefiting rural and urban communities nationwide. These long-neglected icons of our natural and cultural heritage may finally receive a measured investment, with bipartisan support, toward a massive, $9-billion backlog of critical infrastructure repairs.

"Rather than support the more than $2 billion worth of job-creating infrastructure investments that the National Park Service says it can invest during the course of the stimulus—just one quarter of its needs—Congressman Issa has instead chosen to recycle libelous claims, which are flat-out wrong."

The statement went on to say that the NPCA would not receive, nor has sought, any financial benefit from passage of the stimulus legislation.

"While our publicly-filed disclosure forms cited by the congressman indicate that NPCA advocates for adequate federal funding and protection of our national treasures, as we have for 89 years, NPCA Senior Vice President for Government Affairs Craig Obey does not lobby House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey or his office staff," the NPCA statement added. "There is no place for these offensive attacks when the future of our national parks and our economy is at stake."