Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke partnered Wednesday with a bipartisan group of lawmakers to create a fund to pay for the billions of dollars of repairs and maintenance needed in national parks and wildlife refuges.
The Trump administration originally pitched the fund as part of its fiscal 2019 budget proposal.
The fund, which would hold up to $18 billion, would be paid for by new leases for energy development on onshore and offshore federal lands. It also would finance schools under the Bureau of Indian Education.
“Infrastructure is an investment, not merely an expense. And every dollar we put in to rebuilding our parks will help bolster the gateway communities that rely on park visitation for economic vitality,” Zinke said. “Since the early days of my confirmation, I’ve been talking with members of the House and Senate about how we can use energy revenue to rebuild and revitalize our parks and communities. This bill is the largest investment in national parks in our nation’s history. This is not a Republican or Democrat issue. This is an American issue, and I think that the bipartisan body of lawmakers who put this bill forward is proof.”
Sens. Lamar Alexander, R-Tenn., and Angus King, I-Maine, sponsored legislation creating the fund on the Senate side. Additional co-sponsors include Sens. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Steve Daines, R-Mont., Cory Gardner, R-Colo., and Thom Tillis, R-N.C.
“Addressing the maintenance backlog will help attract even more visitors and create more jobs for Tennesseans,” Alexander said, noting the $215 million needed to make repairs at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, by far the most visited national park, which is in his home state. “We must continue to work together to find solutions to the many challenges facing our public lands, and this legislation takes an important step toward doing that.”
Reps. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, and Kurt Schrader, D-Ore., announced a companion bill in the House.
The Interior Department has a $16 billion maintenance backlog, the agency says. Of that amount, the National Park Service has the largest share, $11.6 billion in 2017.
The landmark Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona has a more than $329 million maintenance backlog alone.
The department’s proposed repair fund could be paid for with federal energy revenue, including oil, gas and coal leasing, as well as solar, wind, and geothermal development.
Interior’s proposal is already more popular than previous ideas the agency has offered to repair national parks.
Last year, the National Park Service proposed to more than double visitor fees for 17 popular national parks to pay for the repairs and upkeep.
But Democrats and national park groups opposed the proposal, arguing that Congress or the administration should pay for the maintenance, not visitors. The plan has not been implemented.
Some environmentalists and former National Parks officials also reject Zinke’s new proposal.
The Coalition to Protect National Parks, an advocacy group of 1,200 current, former and retired employees of the National Park Service, has criticized Zinke’s plan to use money raised from energy leasing to pay for park fixes, saying that it shows his preference for fossil fuel drilling.
Critics note the agency’s fiscal 2019 budget plan includes cutting nearly 2,000 National Park Service jobs, compared to 2017 levels, at the same time visits to national parks are at record levels.
