A compromise budget bill for Interior will put the National Park Service deeper in the hole/Jennifer Bain file
The National Park Service, already struggling to meet staffing and operational needs, will be saddled with a $150 million cut to its current budget if Congress approves a Senate-House compromise spending plan released by the two chambers' appropriations committees. Additionally, the bills don't provide any additional funds to help parks cover a 5.2 percent federal pay raise ordered last year.
"The cuts Congress has proposed will reach every corner of our national parks, which now face even less staff and more delayed repair needs," Theresa Pierno, president and CEO of the National Parks Conservation Association, said Monday afternoon. "Congress is setting a course to go backwards, which ultimately means less protection for these places and the stories they hold. We can’t expect our national parks to meet their mission and safely welcome millions of visitors with less. Compromise is essential for the success of our country, but it shouldn’t come at the expense of our most cherished places and the people who protect them."
The $150 million cut represents an overall 4.3 percent cut from FY23 funding, and a 1.2 percent (or $35 million) cut in the Park Service's operations budget.
The spending bill also calls for roughly $71 million in cuts to maintenance and construction budget lines that will delay some projects President Biden had requested in his FY24 budget proposal.
How the Park Service will manage the cuts if approved by Congress remains to be seen, though already visitors have seen cuts to programs as individual parks try to stay within budget. Last year the Blue Ridge Parkway closed a campground roughly two months ahead of schedule because it didn't have enough staff, and recently a controversy arose at North Cascades National Park Complex in Washington state where officials said they wouldn't have permanent rangers stationed at Stehekin this coming summer.
Phil Francis, chair of the executive committee at the Coalition to Protect America's National Parks, said the cuts come at a "time when we have more parks and more visitors and tremendous needs. We really need to get the budget to help those parks."
"We've been looking for [proper NPS funding] for as long, well, gosh, I worked for 41 years and it's been 10 years since I retired and I'm still looking for adequate long-term funding for our parks," said Francis, who ended his Park Service career as superintendent of the Blue Ridge Parkway.
While he said Congress might be trying to do a good job through compromise, "if we're having to cut more positions, if we can't fill positions, instead of having 3,000 vacancies, we're going to have a good number more."
Back at NPCA, Pierno noted that, “[T]here’s no denying that this budget deal could have been worse. But that doesn’t change the fact that parks have been struggling for decades, operating with fewer staff and smaller budgets to sustain soaring park visitation, worsening effects of climate change and an increasing backlog of repair needs. Further cuts to funding will only make matters worse, forcing park superintendents to make difficult decisions about how many staff they can employ or what educational programs they can sustain. It also undermines real progress being made to tackle critical maintenance needs at parks across the country."
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The parks should respond by increasing access fees and Congress should be shamed into approving the requests.
Congress should withhold all funding from the NPS, until the NPS is shamed into a complete restructuring.
A restructuirng that includes:
--prioritizing then downsizing the number of parks, monuments and preserves. We've designated too many sites that just do not qualify for federal protection. Stert with Stonewall--return it to the state.
--streamline management, and make it easier to discipline & fire ineffective employees, even if this means ending outdated civil service protections
--end all funding of DEI initiatives and "outreach" programs & hiring, because they're not only immoral, but illegal and ineffective
--make the NPS director a presidential appointee who has met minimal, agreed-upon qualifications We need to make the NPS more responsive to national trends and wishes. The NPS is OUR agency, not the playground of self-appointed "professionals" pushing their own agendas
--yes, increase entrance fees and other use fees.
National Park Service funding is important to the nation. The cut to operations and the required pay raise will be painful indeed to the public. Hopefully fees will help pay for essential services. But 419 parks is expensive and Congress needs to do a better job of paying for them, or reducing non-critical historic sites. The NPS needs to focus on its crown jewel natural and cultural icons.
Stop the new construction program. With a maintenance backlog of $22 billion NPS doesn't need to continue building new visitor centers. Transfer the 300-400 employees in the Denver Service Center to the parks to help with backlog maintenance. Reduce the hours of operations of Parks. Close Parks during the weekdays. Reduce the number of Regional Offices and the staff in those offices. Send those employees to the Parks.
Wait! An advocacy group thinks that their favorite federal agency is underfunded? That's news? Really?
NAme the last time that the NPCA put out a press release applauding the sufficient funding of the NPS! Now THAT would be news!
A Johnson: First Congress and the President designate national parks and monuments. The NPS has no control over these desinations and cannot "cut" them. Most Americans support these designations for many reasons. Also the NPS Director already is a presidential appointee. Note that Don Trump did not have an NPS director. His choice and it hurt the agency badly. The NPS is responsive to national trends which are increased use and more visitors and deep support from Americans. But republicans keep cutting their budget so they can't do their work properly.
Your ideas show some misunderstandings.
It is high time for the cying, complaining and blaming to end. The NPS and ths NPs before them have been underfunded since the beginning, whatever party was in charge. It's never going to change. Grow up.
How about we start discussing solutions. I for one don't want to see NPS services cut. I want to camp on the BRP. I want to speak with the ranger at the Stehekin VC. So what are we going to do about it?
In America, you get what you pay for. And the NPS visitor doesn't pay much. We either ante up and pay real entrance fees and user fees, or we keep whining about a proper budget that will NEVER materialize.
Oh the poor people - how will they pay? We can figure out ways to help the most needy. But 95% of NPS visitors can pay. They bought their airline tickets, they paid for their iPhones and their wifi and everything else. They can pay.
Sleeping Bear Dunes park service seems determined to put in a bicycle path to nowhere, that will require felling more than 7,000 trees and building 15' retaining walls along a now-scenic road. NPS could save more than $7M by cancelling this boondoggle.