The number's a step in the right direction, the needs are many, but don't expect any immediate word on exactly how the National Park Service will spend its share of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act funding.
Why not? Because first the National Park Service must come up with its job list, and then Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and Congress must sign off on the proposed work. It could be four months before there's any clarity on what will be funded.
What we can clear up, though, is the number the Park Service has been told to work with. While various media reports last week pegged the total around $750 million, when you add in Federal Highway Administration dollars for roads that pass through the National Park System, the total gets bumped up to $920 million. (While that represents only about 10 percent of the agency's maintenance backlog, it still is $920 million more than the Park Service had just a month ago.)
Bruce Sheaffer, the Park Service's comptroller, provides the following breakdown of the congressional appropriations coming to the agency under the act’s provisions:
* $589 million to the Park Service's construction account for repair and restoration of roads and construction of facilities, including energy efficient retrofits of existing facilities; equipment replacement; preservation and repair of historical resources within the National Park System; cleanup of abandoned mine sites on park lands; and other critical infrastructure projects.
* $146 million under operations for deferred maintenance of facilities and trails and for other critical repair and rehabilitation projects.
* $15 million for historic preservation projects at historically black colleges and universities.
* $170 million for the Federal Highway Administration to spend on Federal Highway System roads in national parks.
With that groundwork laid, the recovery and reinvestment act also comes with some strings attached from Congress and President Obama that mean the money might not be spent on the Park System's most pressing needs. Rather, the highest priority is to fund projects that create the largest number of jobs in the shortest period of time and that create lasting value for the park system and its visitors. Project funds are to be obligated by the end of September 2010.
While Congress gave the NPS flexibility in determining how to allocate stimulus funds, the money comes with oversight requirements and a list of deadlines that are fast approaching. First the agency was given 30 days to provide a general plan for the allocation of resources. That plan then must be reviewed by the administration and the Office of Management and Budget within three months after the president signs the recovery legislation.
National Park Service program managers began to compile lists of potential projects several weeks ago, as it became clear Congress would approve a large stimulus package. According to Acting Director Dan Wenk, the initial list includes projects that meet the president’s goals and can be obligated within 18 months.
In addition to the Federal Highway Administration funding for roads, the NPS will use a portion of the $589 million in construction money for additional projects on roads that are within national parks but not part of the federal highway system.
While the Interior Department has created a web page on which you'll be able to follow the money, this morning it wasn't working.
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* $15 million for historic preservation projects at historically black colleges and universities.
What does that have to do with NPS?
The National Park Service runs the program, the Historic Preservation Fund, that the money is being funneled through.
I've wondered previously, why other National priorities like education and transportation received much bigger allotments in the stimulus package than National Parks - but the fact that it is going to take the National Park Service and Department of the Interior four months just to figure out where to start spending the money seems to point in the right direction. For all the talk of the $9 billion backlog, one wonders if the NPS really has the backlog well-defined enough to be able to address it, even if they were suddenly given the resources to do so.
I've reflected on this a little more, and realized that the other possible storyline here (i.e. other than the possible storyline about the limits of the NPS to absorb and manage additional spending) is what a phenomenal missed opportunity this was for the Parks. The last time this country faced an economic crisis of this magnitude, the National Parks played a now-legendary role in the stimulus and jobs program that was established to respond to it (CCC anyone?). Surely this role could have made for a strong selling point in addressing the maintenance backlog for the Parks, right? Shortly after the last election many interest groups immediately began gearing up to ensure that their concerns were addressed in the stimulus package. Were Parks interest groups perhaps too distracted by a guns issue that may not ultimately impact most Park visitors to have successfully made that case? With the budget deficit now proposed to hit 1.75 trillion dollars in 2010, and no sign of a new comprehensive effort to reduce the maintenance backlog, was a once-in-a-generation opportunity missed - despite the change in Administration?