n a significant step forward for the national parks, Sens. John McCain (R-AZ) and Lamar Alex-ander (R-TN) joined other Senate leaders in introducing the National Park Centennial Act, Senate Bill 866, on April 21. This action, taken months after Reps. Mark Souder (R-IN) and Brian Baird (D-WA) introduced the bill in the House of Representatives, helps build momentum for legislation designed to address vital park funding needs.
“Hundreds of millions of families and visitors from all over the world have visited these parks for recreational, educational, and cultural opportunities,” said McCain. “Unfortunately, all of this public enjoyment and use coupled with the lack of adequate financial investment in the parks has left them in a state of disrepair and neglect. A multi-billion dollar maintenance backlog has cast a long shadow over the glory of our national park heritage.”
As many of NPCA’s members already know, the Centennial Act would use an incentive to solve those funding shortfalls by allowing American taxpayers to contribute a part of their tax refund to support the parks. The goal is to restore the parks to appropriate funding levels in time for their centennial in 2016.
The bill has broad support from both sides of the aisle and across the country, including key players in the Interior appropriations process. The next step is to secure more co-sponsors from both parties in the House and Senate. Once the bill has generated enough interest and mo-mentum, it will be introduced into a formal hearing and subject to wider debate.
The Capitol’s occupants are also focusing on this year’s budget, and NPCA is actively engaged in that process as well. Steve Bosak, director of NPCA’s National Park Legacy Campaign, and other NPCA staffers accompanied a group of constituents from park gateway communities who told their senators and representatives about the needs of the parks and the financial advantages that the parks bring to surrounding areas. Plans are already in the works for follow-up opportunities to capitalize on this momentum.
The 2006 budget is still a work in progress, but the parks are already seeing small but significant gains as many other government programs are being cut severely. In early May, NPCA worked with key members of Congress to circulate letters to the heads of Interior Appropriations Committees in the House and Senate, asking for $100 million above the president’s budget request so the parks might address “homeland security costs, unbudgeted cost-of-living expenses, and the rising cost of supplies as well as several across-the-board cuts to Interior agencies.” Seventy-eight representatives and 37 senators signed on, throwing their support behind the parks.
Fortunately, the administration and the House already have agreed to fund cost-of-living increases for dedicated park staff in their fiscal year 2006 budget. In fact, the House added $20 million to the administration’s proposed budget for park operations. (As this issue went to press, the Senate had not yet offered up a number.) Unfortunately, the proposed budget eliminates or significantly reduces funding for important national recreation and preservation programs such as the Land and Water Conservation Fund. This means that lands inside park boundaries or adjacent to parks like Valley Forge, Petrified Forest, and Lewis & Clark National Historic Trail may still be in jeopardy.
