News Release:
Congress Discusses Ways To Reduce The Repair Backlog For US National Parks
The U.S. Dept Of The Interior Reports On Secretary Zinke's Proposed Bill To Rebuild Our National Parks And Address The Maintenance & Repair Backlog That Exceeds $11 Billion.
Editor's Note: This news item was retrieved through The U.S. Department of Interior's website via Google.
WASHINGTON – U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke? met with ??U.S. ?Senators? Lamar Alexander (R-TN)? and Angus King (I-ME)?, Rep. Mike Simpson (R-ID), Rep. Kurt Schrader (D-OR) and ?others earlier this week to introduce a bipartisan bill that will assist in rebuilding ?America's National Park?s. The proposed ?bill would? use up to $18 billion in revenue derived from energy produced on federal lands and waters to? estab-lish a special fund within the Treasury specifically for “National Park Restoration”. The bill ?follows the blueprint laid out in Secretary Zinke and President Trump's budget proposal, the Public Lands Infrastructure Fund.? The Alexander/King bill's cosponsors are: Senators Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Steve Daines (R-MT), Cory Gardner (R-CO)?, and Thom Tillis (R-NC). This bill fulfills one of the priorities laid out in President Trump’s legislative framework for rebuilding America's infrastruc-ture.
According to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke: "?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. 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 legislation will help address the over $11 billion maintenance backlog at US national parks, including the $215 million backlog of projects in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park,” Senator Alexander said. “The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is one of America’s greatest treasures – and it has a tremendous economic impact in East Tennessee, attracting nearly twice the visitors of any other national park. Addressing the maintenance backlog will help attract even more visitors and create more jobs for Tennesseans. 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.”
The National Park Service estimates that its maintenance and repair backlog exceeds $11.6 billion. In 2017, 330 million people visited the 417 NPS sites across the country. The NPS ?completed over $650 million in maintenance and repair work in FY 2017, but aging facilities, ?high visitation, and resource constraints have kept the maintenance backlog between $11 billion and $12 billion since 2010.
For the full press release written by The U.S. Department of Interior staff click here.