WASHINGTON, D.C. - Under pressure from the administration, the Senate failed to delay the White House's plan to potentially privatize more than half of all National Park Service jobs.
The Senate's fiscal year 2004 Department of Interior spending bill, passed in late September, did not carry an amendment offered by Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.) that would have slowed by one year the administration's top-down plan to privatize Park Service jobs.
Earlier this year, the House passed a bill with bipartisan language to delay the administration's outsourcing plan until Congress had a better idea of its costs and consequences.
"The Senate has yet to realize what a majority of the House already knows," said NPCA President Thomas C. Kiernan. "The administration's approach to outsourcing jobs is flawed and deserves more careful consideration. Our national parks, the National Park Service, and the experiences of millions of visitors could suffer as a result."
The administration had threatened to veto a bill containing language to stop outsourcing. The Senate approved a privatization amendment sponsored by Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio) that simply calls for annual updates on how park privatization studies are going.
In July, hearings were held before the Senate Subcommittee on National Parks - under the leadership of Sen. Craig Thomas (R-Wyo.) - on the plan to subject as many as 58 percent of the jobs in the Park Service to privatization. NPCA testified that, although outsourcing may be useful in some circumstances dictated by the needs and missions of specific parks, the White House's plan is not in the best interest of the parks.
NPCA has urged the administration to reassess its plan, fearing that the current plan would take jobs from dedicated park employees, such as archaeologists, museum curators, biologists, and maintenance workers, without considering the systemic impact on individual parks or the National Park System - lessening the Park Service's institutional capacity, knowledge, and public service.
Another concern is that the cost of studying whether to privatize jobs will divert money from cash-strapped park operating and maintenance budgets.
NPCA hopes that the House-passed language to protect Park Service jobs gets into the final spending bill, once the differences between the House and Senate bills are ironed out in conference.
"The battle is not over," said Kiernan. "There will be other opportunities to raise this issue in Congress and with the public."
