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March 18, 2015 - On Tuesday, March 17, 2015 the Committee on Natural Resources Subcommittee Meeting of Federal Lands of the 114th Congress held their first meeting. They held an Oversight Hearing on "Examining the Spending Priorities and Missions of the National Park Service (NPS) in the President's FY 2016 Budget Proposal."

Chairman Tom McClintock brought the meeting to order and the quorum requirement was fulfilled 

Mr. McClintock said our National Parks are a uniquely American institution and that land was set aside of, by and for the people. 

Among the challenges the National Parks face are (1) a backlog of over $11 Billion dollars in maintenance, (2) attracting the next generation of visitors.

Mr. McClintock said the parks have a new exclusionary policy of look but do not touch. And this is displayed by things like limiting public access, banning bottled water and even refusing a search and recovery mission across park boundaries. 

The Chairman said in Yosemite National Park plans continue to remove the Curry Village ice skating rink, reducing or eliminating biking and equestrian activities.

He said we are told visits to the National Parks are up but it is an allusion as the in-park concessionary lodging is down by 330,000 persons annually (about 10%), RV campers are down two million camper nights annually (about 50%), and tent campers are down 705,000 overnights (about 20%). 

He said a reasonable person would assume they should take care of the land they currently administer before acquiring new land and the Presidents budget has additional land acquisitions of almost $300 millions dollars.

Ranking Member Niki Tsongas said the parks have a tremendous financial impact on the local economies as a park service study found for every $1 federal dollar invested in the parks it puts $10 dollars back in economic activity. The study has the parks generating $27 billion in economic activity and 250,000 private sector jobs. She said the parks service budget has been shrinking, compromising its ability to protect for future generations. In the last ten years the budget has been cut 22% leading to a growing backlog of deferred maintenance and other challenges. The proposed NPS budget makes up just 1/16 of 1% of the entire federal budget. 

National Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis said they are preparing for the Centennial. He said during 2014 National Park visitation grew by almost 20 million for a total of 292 million. They are looking at increasing fees and currently collect around $180 million in fee revenue. The proposed increases would bring in another $45 Million that could go toward the deferred maintenance. 

The highlight in the budget request is $326 million for the centennial initiative. Most of this money would be spent on deferred maintenance. This would be spent on things like the trails in the Mariposa Grove. He said we cannot face our visitors with failing facilities like the wastewater system in Yosemite. The maintenance backlog is $11.5 Billion. Half of this is for transportation like roads and bridges. $2.2 billion is for the highest non transportation assets. An increase of $243 Million along with a mandatory proposal  of $300 Million spent yearly for three years could restore the highest priority non transportation assets. The proposal has many requests including $8 Million to hire more seasonal rangers, $13 Million for the new parks, $2 Million for volunteer coordinators, $20 Million for the 'Every Kid In A Park Initiative,' $50 Million for a Centennial Challenge that could be private donor matched, $50 Million for a Civil Rights Initiative and $27 million for fixed costs like seasonal health insurance and pay increases.

Mr. McClintock asked the Director why the proposal for hundreds of millions of dollars for land acquisitions when we have a $11 Billion dollars deferred maintenance backlog and shouldn't we be taking care of this first?

The Director said the acquisition program they use buy properties that are inside park boundaries and actually save the park money and are not expanding the parks footprint.

Mr. McClintock asked the Director what was the highest priority, the deferred maintenance backlog or new land acquisition?

The Director said if he had to make a 'Sophie's Choice' it would be the maintenance backlog. 

Mr. McClintock said the growing number of visitors is due to the two memorials, Roosevelt and World War Two. 

The Chairman said Yosemite National Park is well off it's peak numbers but he has been told they have added over 400 employees in the last several years. He asked the Director why if we are not attracting more people why are we adding more staff?

The Director said everyone involved with tourism is worried about domestic tourism and the outdoors as they see a decline in wide range of activities, so there goal is to create a new generation of people that enjoy the outdoors and domestic travel. They are targeting the Millenials (ages 18-35). A major public awareness campaign that is privately paid is launching in April to connect this next generation and get them into the parks.

Mr. McClintock asked the Director why there was a decline in the visitation numbers to the parks?

The Director said it is not just the National Parks that are seeing a decline but all our national lands due to the increase of urban population, the value of the dollar and travel to Europe. He said young people today do not look to domestic travel for vacations.

Mr. McClintock said at Yosemite the park is trying to remove or restrict activities for the Millenials, such as moving the bike racks and the plans for bike racks are being built into the concessionaires contract and are not being required, only if the concessionaire wants to continue with them. He asked the Director if this is not sending the wrong message to the public?

The Director said not in his mind as they have always looked to their private sector partners to provide resources for the publics enjoyment, like bicycles. And we need to protect the river corridor as it is unsustainable to do some development so we are just moving the bicycles to another part of the Valley but they will still be available as biking is incredibly popular.

Mr. McClintock asked the Director why the equestrian riding rentals were being moved out of YosemiteValley?

The Director said you can still ride horses and Mr. McClintock said you have to bring your own horses to the Valley. He said it sends the wrong message to the public.

Ranking Member Tsongas said the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) has a dedicated revenue stream to purchase properties and to compare it to the deferred maintenance backlog is a false choice. For over 50 years this fund takes revenues from offshore oil and gas to put into land and water resources and no taxpayer dollars are used for this. They help the NPS acquire small pockets of private land in-holdings from willing sellers. Also it provides matching grants to states and local communities to build trails and playgrounds and give communities access to parks and open spaces. 

The Director said since 1965 over 42,000 LWCF grants have been awarded totaling over $4 Billion. 

Member Doug LaMalfa said he has grave concerns with funding to purchase more land when they have such a huge challenge taking care of the land already in their purview. He said his constituents see more costs and more limited access with closed gates, facilities taken away and ask him why they are seeking to purchase more land with a national debt, a budget deficit and a challenge on trying to take care of what they have already. He said he is not in favor of this. He said people using Lassen National Park are looking at some fee increase proposals of 300%.

The Director said they have had a moratorium on fee increases since 2008. He said they ask the public first if they are willing to support a fee increase and that is what they are doing now. The $80 annual 'America the Beautiful' Pass lets one into all the parks and national lands and the Director said it is an incredible deal. He said while the percentages seem high the actual costs are quite low and these passes are for seven days.

The Director said the distribution of the $180 million of the collected fees has 80% staying in the collected park while 20% are pooled for the non collecting parks. With a deferred maintenance backlog of $11 Billion they are losing ground not gaining ground.

Member Louie Gohmert said the more he reads the statistics it is not good. He said since 1987 the US population has increased 32% from 242 million to 319 million and National Park stats have visitation up but if you take away the seven million that visited the Roosevelt and World War Two memorial that visits are actually down. He said population is up and park visits are way down and yet you want to buy more land with your infrastructure deteriorating.

Member Gohmert asked the Director about the $10 Senior Pass and said the age for the pass is 62. 

Member Gohmert asked the Director if he had any strategy to boost attendance at the parks as visitation declines? The Director said visitation is at 292 Million and they are launching  a campaign to boost visitation.

Member Jared Huffman said we are confronted with an erroneous narrative that the USA is too impoverished to deal with this runaway spending problem that we have at the NPS. He said this is a false narrative that we are not an impoverished county like Greece  and the NPS does not have a runaway spending problem. He said inflation adjusted for the last ten years construction spending shows spending going down and also all the NPS funding is a flat line with a slight downward trend when adjusted for inflation.

The Director said they manage over 400 national park sites, included within that is over 75,000 assets 24,500 buildings, 4,000 houses, 1,370 campgrounds, 5,000 utility systems and 15,000 miles of paved and unpaved roads. He said it takes federal dollars to maintain them so the core of this request is for maintenance. 

Member Debbie Dingell said location matters as to how much attendance a park receives and the Land and Water Conservation Fund is up for renewal and she hopes it gets funded. She said every $1 dollar in this fund returns $4 dollars. 

Member Jody Hice said the NPS is seeking a $433 Million dollar increase over the previous year. He asked the Director how much of the NPS budget stays in Washington? The Director says very little of it stays in Washington that most of it goes out to the field. Asked about the $5.9 Billion deferred maintenance backlog for non-transportation items and the $750 Million in Stimulus Dollars they received the Director said all of that money was applied to the deferred maintenance.

The Director said they need about $750 Million annually just to stay even on maintenance and with their flat budget for the last eight to ten years they have been losing ground.

When asked what they are currently doing about the deferred maintenance the Director said they have three categories within their existing budget and the money is being used for high priority deferred maintenance assets. Their fee program money is mostly used for deferred maintenance. Their philanthropy program is also used for deferred maintenance.

When asked by Member Glenn 'GT' Thompson about concealed carry in the parks the Director said it has been implemented but in buildings where there are federal employees there are signs that prevent concealed carry in accordance with the law. Mr. Thompson said he has concerns about this and the way it is being implemented.

Ranking Member Niki Tsongas said the NPS budget as a percentage of the overall federal budget has declined by 50% in thirty years.

On Controlled Burns the Director said they need more money to perform more controlled burns. He said the Rim Fire in Yosemitelaid down when it reached a previous controlled burn area but on the Forest Service side there was an incredible amount of fuel. The Director said Biomass may be an option in the parks but not saw logs.

For more information: Hearing Memo
And 
Jonathan B. Jarvis