Vice President Pence and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt visited Yellowstone National Park on Thursday and called for infrastructure spending. Park Superintendent Cam Sholly toured the men through the Old Faithful complex/NPS

Vice President Pence used Yellowstone National Park as a backdrop Thursday to call for Congress to pass legislation to make inroads on the National Park System's roughly $12 billion maintenance backlog.

During a short stay in the park, the vice president and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt spoke to approximately 120 employees and park partners. He also received briefings from Park Service employees on the subjects of deferred maintenance, forest management and wildfire, and Yellowstone’s unique geology and wildlife.

The Trump administration included a legislative proposal in its FY20 budget proposal that called for the creation of a Public Lands Infrastructure Fund. As envisioned, fund would be tapped to address deferred maintenance not just in the National Park System, but also on wildlife refuges, Bureau of Land Management properties, and national forests. It would draw revenues from federal energy leases and royalty payments (all forms of energy, solar, wind, coal, oil, gas, biomass, geothermal, etc.) to pay for maintenance projects.

There is legislation working its way through Congress to establish this fund, though its passage is not guaranteed. Similar legislation died in the last Congress. As drafted, the current legislation would provide up to $6.5 billion for a five-year-period.

While Pence spoke of the need to tackle the Park Service's maintenance backlog, the Trump administration has not been kind to the agency.  The president's FY20 budget called for a 14 percent cut in the Interior Department's budget, to $12.6 billion. For the Park Service, the appropriation would drop to $2.7 billion under Trump's proposal, an amount that if approved would continue a reduction in the agency's budget.

Since President Trump assumed office in January 2017, he has shown little outward interest in the National Park Service or its farflung collection of unique parks, battlefields, seashores, and monuments. He waited until midway through 2018 to nominate a director for the Park Service, and that nomination died in December without full Senate consideration.

The president and his first Interior secretary, Ryan Zinke, also drew much contempt in environmental and conservation circles in December 2017 when Trump issued an executive order greatly reducing the size of both Bears Ears and Grand Staircase national monuments in Utah. That action continues to be litigated in court today. 

President Trump's budget proposal, while hailed by his team at Interior, contains line after line after line of cuts in NPS funding, from operations (down $52.4 million) and the Historic Preservation Fund (down $64.2 million), to Construction (a $113.4 million decrease) and Land Acquisition and State Assistance (down $176.1 million). It all adds up to a proposed cut of $460.4 million for the Park Service. His proposal also would wipe out the Land and Water Conservation Fund, something that wasn't lost on critics of Pence's visit to Yellowstone.

“No amount of political photo ops will wipe away the Trump administration’s abysmal record on  our nation’s prized national parks," said Western Values Project Executive Director Chris Saeger. "If Vice President Pence, Senator (Steve) Daines (R-Montana), and Secretary Bernhardt were being faithful in their commitment, their budget proposal would fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund, which is vital to parks like Yellowstone."

At the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, a group of retired Park Service employees, Doug Morris also decried the administration's desire to get rid of the Land and Water Conservation Fund.

"Today, as Interior Secretary Bernhardt tours Old Faithful with the Vice President and Second Lady, it’s worth noting the primary reason that Yellowstone and other national, state, and local parks are readily available for the enjoyment and well-being of all Americans; the Land and Water Conservation Fund," said Morris, whose Park Service career included stints as superintendent of both Saguaro and Shenandoah national parks. "This fund is our most important source for the protection of public lands and increased access to the outdoors. Now that LWCF has been permanently reauthorized, it needs full funding, or $900 million annually, to truly provide future generations of Americans with abundant places for recreation and a healthy connection with the natural world.

"Unfortunately, Secretary Bernhardt and President Trump have offered up a proposed Fiscal Year 2020 budget that all but eliminates LWCF funding. This must not be allowed to happen. I am thankful that both the House and Senate have filed legislation to accomplish mandatory full funding for LWCF, and I urge Congress to pass that legislation and override the shortsightedness exhibited by the current administration," added Morris, who sits on the Coalition's Executive Council.