President Obama wants to add 55 million dollars to the National Park Service budget, including ten million dollars to get parks ready for their centennial celebration in 2016. John Garder with the National Parks Conservation Association says the money is needed to address billions of dollars in maintenance.
“The main cause for the growth of the deferred maintenance backlog is the decline in Congress’ investment in the construction account, which creates so many jobs. In today’s dollars, the construction account for the National Park Service has been cut nearly in half, just in the last four years.”
Garder said that the funding increase is welcome, but he added that its impact will be limited.
“It’s a modest increase over last year. It doesn’t get parks back to where they were just a few years ago, before damaging cuts, to ensure that people can have a really inspiring and safe experience in our parks.”
Wyoming Senator Mike Enzi says that before he supports a funding increase he wants the Government Accountability Office to review the spending habits of the Park Service.