Letter to Congressman Norm Dicks

TRANSMITTED BY FAX

February 16, 2007

The Honorable Norm Dicks
Chairman, Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Committee on Appropriations
2467 Rayburn House Office Bldg.
Washington, D.C. 20515

Dear Congressman Dicks:

As Chair of the Executive Council of the Coalition of National Park Service Retirees (CNPSR), I would like to provide you some comment on the proposed 2008 budget for the National Park Service recently submitted by the President.

First, we are genuinely appreciative that the budget includes significant increases in operational funding at the park level. As you know, park budgets and staffing have been decreasing over the past several years, and we have been greatly concerned about the abilities of parks to protect critical natural and cultural resources, to provide essential visitor services, to effectively maintain the infrastructure, and to maintain productive relationships with park interest groups. We fully support these operational funding increases, even though we recognize that there is some “trade-off” resulting in a reduction in the construction budget and in several other programs.

Moreover, CNPSR is completely supportive of efforts to engage in a sustained effort between now and the centennial of the National Park System and the National Park Service in 2016 to provide the resources necessary to protect our national inheritance and to ensure that our society receives the full benefit of our national parks for generations to come.

We have serious concerns about the provision in the proposed budget that would:

“Engage all Americans to Protect our Resources through Signature Projects and Programs by challenging the public to contribute, on a matching basis, up to $100 million a year for ten years. An additional $100 million component in a new mandatory funding stream to match the level of donations. This has the potential to make $200 million available per year to the NPS in mandatory funding.”

We recognize that this provision will require separate authorization by the Congress before the $100 million can be appropriated.

Relative to this provision in the 2008 budget proposal, we see no safeguards to limit the donations that would be matched to bona fide non-profit philanthropic “friends groups” and foundations, including the National Park Foundation, that have been established for the exclusive purposes of supporting national parks or the National Park System. The mission of these organizations is explicitly to provide prospective donors, including corporations and individuals, an avenue for donating to national parks. These organizations are important contributors to the parks, and have been successful at soliciting much-needed private financial support.

Without such safeguards, we are concerned that park managers, in their zealousness to reach the annual goal of $100 million in donations could be tempted to expand their efforts to seek donations from sources beyond the appropriate philanthropic ones. This could open the door wider and wider for conflicts and inappropriate “quid pro quo” authorizations in return for donations. We worry that over time, this “chipping away at the margin” relative to funding could result in parks being less and less “public” and more and more “private.”

We recognize and support the very important role that philanthropy has played in providing a “margin of excellence” for the national parks. However, philanthropic support should always be considered as “added value” to a core level of service and protection in our national parks. Under no circumstances should philanthropic funds be used or solicited as a replacement for federal support. Moreover, we are very skeptical of any effort that would increase the potential for the management of parks to be disproportionately influenced by money from commercial or special interests.

CNPSR strongly believes that for the National Park Service to effectively meet its mission under the 1916 Organic Act, all essential operational programs and functions in the parks and in the Service must be funded from public sources and not subsidized or “offset” by funding from private sources.

We are not the only ones expressing concern about this provision in the 2008 budget proposal. Here are but two excerpts from national media sources during the past week:

It's easy to see how, with this administration, that a donate-to-your-favorite-park plan easily could become an invitation for companies, industries, and special interests to advertise themselves in the parks, Further, private donors might feel they have a right to dictate how parks are to be maintained, or where trails will be built, or how big campgrounds will be. Philanthropy quickly could turn into commercialism. - Laura Scott, Kansas City Star.

The Bush administration has proved unduly sympathetic to the recreational vehicle industry, which contends its customers aren't content to tool through nearby forests (on snowmobiles) but want to be able to ride up to Old Faithful. Soliciting donations to the parks from those and other businesses, as well as foundations and individuals, raises the prospect that such influence will only grow. – Editorial Board, Baltimore Sun.

We will be working with other Committees and Members of Congress to assure that the appropriate protections are in place for using private sources of money to help fund needs in the national parks. In the meantime, we would appreciate it if you would be vigilant in assuring that the 2008 Appropriations Bill for the National Park Service does not ignore such protections. We would be happy to work with your staff to develop the details of such protections, if requested.

We are willing to provide testimony or statements for the record at any hearing on this, or any other issue related to the management of national parks.

Sincerely,

J. W. “Bill” Wade

Chair, Executive Council

cc:
Congressman Nick Rahall, Chairman, Natural Resources Committee
Congressman Raúl Grijalva, Chairman, National Parks, Forests and Public Lands SubCommittee
Senator Dianne Feinstein, Chairman, Appropriations SubCommittee for Interior, Environment and Related Agencies
Senator Jeff Bingaman, Chairman, Energy and Natural Resources Committee
Senator Daniel K. Akaka, Chairman, National Parks SubCommittee
Dirk Kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
Mary Bomar, Director, National Park Service