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The National Park Service long has pondered how best to restore and maintain the conditions of the buildings on Officers' Row at Fort Hancock in Gateway National Recreation Area/NPS

A glimpse of how the House of Representatives might approach the infrastructure needs of the National Park System could be revealed Thursday, when a subcommittee looks at "innovative" ideas for tackling the problems.

The hearing, before the Subcommittee on Federal Lands that is chaired by Republican Tom McClintock of California, is scheduled to receive testimony from the executive director of the Property and Environmental Research Center in Bozeman, Montana, as well as the president of the Business Coalition for Fair Competition. Both organizations tend to propose non-governmental solutions to problems.

Also testifying is Deny Galvin, a former deputy director of the National Park Service who is an advisor to the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks. Not on the witness list is anyone from the National Park Service; the National Parks Conservation Association, the country's oldest park advocacy organization; or the Pew Charitable Trusts, which has launched a three-year campaign aimed specifically at reducing the estimated $12 billion backlog in maintenance across the National Park System.

A memorandum for the hearing includes the following passages:

As NPS has taken on new responsibilities and Congress has voted to add new units to the National Park System, NPS fell behind on necessary maintenance. Despite agency efforts to address the backlog through improved asset management, the backlog continued to grow over the past decade. From Fiscal Year 2006 through Fiscal Year 2015, the NPS spent roughly $10.5 billion on maintenance projects, and yet the backlog continued to increase.

NPS funding to address deferred maintenance comes from discretionary appropriations and from other sources. Two appropriations subaccounts (one under Construction and the other under Operation of the National Park System) partially address deferred maintenance. Allocations from the Highway Trust Fund are used for NPS road repair and improvements. Other sources of funding come from recreation fees. 

In addition to congressional appropriations for deferred maintenance, NPS took a variety of other actions to finance deferred maintenance projects including: 1) using philanthropic donations, 2) working with volunteers, 3) engaging partner groups, 4) expanding concessions operations, 5) partnering with states for transportation grants, and 6) leasing properties. Despite these efforts, new and innovative ideas for financing deferred maintenance projects, lowering federal costs, and expediting necessary planning and compliance are necessary to ensure the long-term sustainability of the National Park System.

In a recent paper, PERC staff suggested that Congress:

• Allow park managers to charge recreation fees and retain the revenues for maintenance and other critical projects by permanently reauthorizing the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act.
• Allow park managers to set their own fee programs or establish new, flexible fee-based services, such as dynamic or congestion pricing, as needed without having to obtain additional approvals from Congress.
• Harness public-private partnerships to address unfunded infrastructure projects. 
• Outsource routine park operations, such as campground management and facility maintenance, to the private sector while maintaining public ownership and oversight.

"Merely increasing the Park Service’s budget, however, is unlikely to solve the issue. In fact, an overreliance on Congress for funding will likely only make the problem worse because Congress would rather create new parks or acquire more land than fund routine maintenance projects," wrote the authors. "The number of park units managed by the Park Service has grown significantly over the past decade—from 390 in 2006 to 417 today. Meanwhile, the agency’s overall budget, as well as the amount of funding devoted to maintenance projects, has remained relatively constant. With more parks but little or no additional funding, the agency’s resources are stretched thinner and thinner. Unless changes are made, the National Park Service estimates the backlog will continue to increase as new units are created and its existing assets continue to deteriorate.

"To address the root of this issue, the National Park Service will have to become less dependent on politically driven Congressional appropriations. That means relying more on park visitors, instead of Congress, for revenue," they went on. "Today, most park user fees can be retained where they are collected, rather than being sent back to the U.S. treasury, allowing local park managers to address critical maintenance needs without relying entirely on Congress for appropriations.

"But more could be done to give park managers flexibility in setting fee schedules. For example, park superintendents could be given the discretion to charge higher fees during holiday weekends and other popular times. This would allow them to collect more revenue for maintenance and use prices to limit congestion. Other ideas, such as harnessing public-private partnerships and tapping the private sector to help with park operations and maintenance, could also help—as long as park leaders are willing to think entrepreneurially about maintenance."

The hearing is set for 10 a.m. Eastern on Thursday in 1324 Longworth House Office Building in Washington, D.C.