WHAT WE DO

• Congress and the administration should take a significant step toward addressing the maintenance backlog and enact the Senate version of the Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century, which provides more than $300 million annually over the next six years for park transportation needs such as road and bridge rehabilitation.
• The backlog of one-time park maintenance projects is created and exacerbated by a shortfall in the annual operating budget of the National Park Service. Congress and the administration must address the $600 million annual operating shortfall that is crippling our national parks. Eighty-four members of the U.S. House of Representatives and 20 senators this May signed letters to the appropriators requesting an additional $240 million for national park operations in the fiscal year 2005 Interior Appropriations bill.
• While it is only part of the solution to the parks’ backlog maintenance needs and cannot supplant federal dollars, Congress and the administration should make the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program permanent for national parks.
• The National Park Service’s new Facility Condition Index, which assesses the condition of historic structures and park buildings throughout the system, should be viewed as a means of prioritizing park maintenance projects and identifying the level of annual funding required to maintain structures at an acceptable level. It does not present an opportunity for Congress and the administration to gloss over the critical needs of the national parks or overstate accomplishments.
• Increased attention to park management and fiscal responsibility can only help the National Park Service manage its $5-billion backlog of park maintenance needs. The Park Service must continue to make the training and hiring of personnel for management effectiveness a priority. Measures must be taken to ensure that park managers have the tools needed to make the most effective choices about where to put their limited financial and human resources in current and coming years. All of the sites within the National Park System should complete and implement a business plan to help guide these decisions.

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