WHAT WE DO

   Research (see next section) demonstrates that the national parks do not receive the funds they need to adequately protect the resources. National parks across the system operate on average with only two-thirds of the needed funding-a system-wide shortfall in excess of $600 million annually. A dramatic example of this occurred in fiscal year 2004 when the parks received only a 1.5 percent increase to cover a mandatory 4.1 percent pay raise for park staff, forcing parks to "borrow" money from other programs within their operating budgets to meet the expense of such fixed costs. Over the past two years, parks have had to absorb approximately $50 million in unfunded, mandatory pay raises. As a result, some parks had to close visitor centers or opt for less visible but equally damaging decisions to reduce the amount of money spent on science and resource management or maintenance of park infrastructure and historic buildings-exacerbating the backlog of park maintenance projects across the system.

   Even though the House Interior Appropriations Committee in 2003 expressed serious concern about the erosion of base operating funds, this year Congress imposed two across-the-board cuts that directly affected the fiscal year 2004 operating budgets of the parks. Over the past two years, such cuts have cost the parks more than $20 million in lost funding. These cuts, coupled with the costs of storm damage, demands of securing the nation's icons, dams, and borders from terrorist attack, health care benefits for staff, and the effects of inflation have battered park budgets, diverting much needed operating funds to other needs. In addition, the Park Service itself has trimmed individual park budgets to pay for infrastructure and communications technology, as well as regional operations.

   Such unfunded expenses have the cumulative effect of turning a small budget increase into a deficit. Over the past two years, despite small operating increases at Gettysburg National Military Park, cumulative expenses have actually translated into a $600,000 loss. For the same reasons, Shenandoah National Park has lost approximately $1 million in buying power in the past three years.

   "We're just not getting [additional funds]. No one is," the former superintendent of Lowell National Historical Park in Massachusetts told the Lowell Sun in November. "I don't see it getting any better, either. Things are tough out there. I think service-wide we have reached a point where we laugh when people say you have to do more for less... or things like "cut the fat." The fat was gone years ago. I think we are at bare bottom."