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Trying to reduce the National Park Service's maintenance backlog is complicated by events that drain the agency's few financial resources, such as the October 2015 storm that did heavy damage to Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park and the road leading to it/NPS

Much like a homeowner who puts off "until next year" repairs to that leaky roof or well-aged furnace, Congress for years largely has turned a blind eye to growing maintenance issues around the National Park System. While two U.S. senators have introduced legislation to tackle that backlog, estimated at $12 billion, their bill alone won't get the job done.

The outstanding bill is too large, and the payment period -- 30 years -- laid out by Sens. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, and Rob Portman, R-Ohio, too long with too many unknowns to say with any certainty that their National Park Service Legacy Act of 2017 would meet success. If passed by Congress and signed by the president, the measure would budget $50 million in annual appropriations for fiscal years 2018, 2019 and 2020; $150 million for fiscal years 2021, 2022, and 2023; $250 million for fiscal years 2024, 2025 and 2026, and; $500 million for fiscal years 2027-2047. Add it up and it comes to $11.85 billion.

But, proponents of the measure say, the senators are starting a key discussion in Congress.

"Obviously, it would have been really great if there would be a proposal that would in ten years take down the backlog," Will Shafroth, president and CEO of the National Park Foundation, said Saturday. "But this is a serious attempt to take care of the most urgent needs in the Park Service. It doesn’t mean that this is the only thing that one could be working on. I’ve had many conversations with Sen. Portman about this. He was on the Second Century Commission, he was the OMB director, he knows how this works,and I don’t think he pretends that this would be a silver bullet, if you will, in terms of taking care of it.

“This is a really, really important step in that direction.”

When the legislation was introduced this past Tuesday, Sen. Warner pointed out that, "(M)ore than 100 years after the founding of the National Park Service, our park system remains in a critical state of disrepair. In fact, Virginia ranks 5th in the list of states with the greatest need for maintenance, with a backlog of more than $800 million."

“While we’ve heard much talk here in Washington about infrastructure spending, a great way to begin this work is by helping in the revitalization of our public lands and the repair of critical roads and bridges, an investment which can generate $10 in economic activity for every public dollar invested," he continued. "Our bipartisan legislation provides this needed investment by helping ensure that these historically diverse assets are preserved for future generations to enjoy. It also makes needed investments in NPS infrastructure, roads and bridges, like the Arlington Memorial Bridge, many of which are badly in need of repair.”

Neither Sen. Warner's nor Sen. Portman's staff returned calls last week to discuss the legislation and its structure.

A complicating factor standing in the way of the measure's end goal, however, is that the maintenance backlog has been growing at the rate of roughly $700 million-$800 million a year. Left unchecked, that could add another $21 billion or more to the backlog over the course of the next three decades. Fortunately, some of that annual growth in the cost of the backlog is being addressed, said Marcia Argust, director of the Pew Charitable Trust's campaign to Restore America’s Parks.

"The bill will have a significant impact on drawing down the backlog. As you may have seen from my written testimony for the (Senate) Energy and Natural Resources Committee last week, NPS is typically $250 - $320 million short of the $800 million it estimates it needs each year to simply maintain transportation and non-transportation assets at current conditions," she said. "By ramping up to a $500 million annual investment in restoration of park infrastructure, NPS would be able to plan and manage maintenance projects more efficiently and in a timely manner. This investment has a cost-savings effect. For example, updating outdated electrical systems ultimately saves on energy bills and fixing roofs saves on more costly repairs.

"It’s also important to keep in mind that, while the NPS Legacy Act is a huge step toward addressing the NPS backlog, there needs to be simultaneous efforts to increase use of public-private partnership opportunities (such as job training in parks, philanthropy, corporate partnerships), as well as research into new technologies that can help NPS tackle maintenance needs," Ms. Argust added. "These efforts will help keep the backlog from escalating."

In the coming weeks and months, the ebb and flow of politics in Washington will shed light on how others in Congress support the parks. Introduced on March 28, the legislation picked up just three more cosponsors last week: Sens. Angus King, an Independent from Maine, Tim Kaine, D-Virginia, and Brian Schatz, D-Hawaii.

How will the Trump administration receive it? Already the president, who has yet to introduce his $1 trillion plan to repair the nation's ailing infrastructure, has called for deep cuts across most agencies, including the Interior Department.

As the legislation moves through the Senate -- it's been referred to the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee -- how might it be amended? Will a companion bill be introduced in the House of Representatives, and how might it fare?

On top of those unknowns, the Park Service's maintenance backlog is not a static number, and constantly increases as unexpected expenses arise, such as the October 2015 storm that did an estimated $26 million in damage to Scotty's Castle in Death Valley National Park, and more recent landslides that have damaged the Blue Ridge Parkway.

Please be advised that park staff were notified via park dispatch this morning of a rock slide that occurred near MP 277, 1/2 mile south of Deep Gap. The slide is large with debris covering both lanes of traffic. The slope above the slide area is still unstable. A full Parkway closure from MP 276.4 through MP 280.9 will be in effect through the weekend, if not longer. We will provide updates here when they become available.-- Blue Ridge Parkway Facebook post, March 31, 2017

While neither the Scotty's Castle situation nor the landslide are part of the backlog, they take Park Service resources that might have been used to address aspects of the backlog. In addition, the current backlog figure will change.

"That number ($11.9 billion) is a snapshot from October 1, 2016. We're expecting any day to see the next snapshot. That number fluctuates like the Stock Market," said John Garder, the budget and fiscal specialist for the National Parks Conservation Association. "There are so many variables, you could never actually predict what the backlog looks like in 30 years."

The legislation introduced by Sens. Warner and Portman, he added, is "intended to draw down the backlog, and then get at the current amount of the backlog, but those numbers will change. There may be amendments to the bill that would adjust the numbers, and it's very difficult to predict. What we can say is it is an amount that would address a great deal of the backlog, which would be very, very helpful, to not only preserve and restore our heritage, but also ensure that the tourism economy can remain robust.

"Drawing down the backlog would allow recreational amenities and all of the things that visitors care about in terms of cultural and natural heritage and facilities that accommodate visitation," said Mr. Garder.

Back at the National Park Foundation, Mr. Shafroth fully realizes the tenuous nature of Congress.

“It’s a bipartisan effort, and even given this budget climate, it’s a statement that there are people who are viewed as leaders in the Senate who are willing to put the names on legislation that’s going to take a real whack at addressing the maintenance backlog," he said, pointing to the legislation. “This is important stuff. Obviously it’s an uphill battle because of the budget challenges that are going on right now, and the uncertainty about how this will be received by the administration, but nonetheless a really important statement for them to make in terms of their view of this being a priority.”

But this legislation, if it somehow gains passage -- no certainty with Congress still needing to deal with the debt ceiling and funding for the rest of the current fiscal year, let alone the next -- is not the only tool available for eating away at the maintenance backlog.

Mr. Shafroth pointing to the National Park Service Centennial Act passed in the dying days of the last Congress that created funding vehicles to raise more money to be used in addressing the backlog. 

The Centennial Act calls for the deposit of up to $10 million generated from all Park Service sales of America The Beautiful - The National Parks and Federal Recreational Lands Passes into a Second Century Endowment for the Park Service to be managed by the National Park Foundation. Any revenues above $10 million would be deposited into a Centennial Challenge fund for projects in the parks. However, those dollars would need to be matched by private dollars before they could be spent.

Under that formula, the theoretical $46 million figure cited above would deposit $10 million into the Second Century Endowment and $36 million into the Centennial Challenge fund.

“It’s a marker," Mr. Shafroth said of the National Park Service Legacy Act. "There has to be a start here from the legislative process, which is what they’ve done, and I think is really important.”