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The National Park Service is under fire from appropriators for planning to reduce fiscal 2005 expenditures by cutting park hours and eliminating visitor services while spending millions of dollars on foreign trips.

In a letter dated March 19, House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Chairman Charles Taylor, R-N.C., and ranking member Norman Dicks, D-Wash., wrote to Park Service Director Fran Mainella that all foreign travel by agency staff in fiscal 2005 would require committee approval. The letter also asks the agency to "significantly reduce non-essential domestic travel" and use teleconferencing methods instead. Lawmakers said those cost-cutting measures and others would save up to $25 million.

A Park Service spokesman declined to comment and said the agency would draft a formal response to the Appropriations Committee. Mainella is scheduled to testify Thursday before the Interior panel. Lawmakers previously scored the Park Service for conducting a private fundraising effort relying on corporate contributions to enhance security at the Statue of Liberty rather than seek federal appropriations.

The Park Service budget would remain essentially flat under President Bush's fiscal 2005 request, rising from $2.33 billion in fiscal 2004 to $2.36 billion in fiscal 2005. The House lawmakers cited a GAO report last year that found travel expenses increased by 29 percent between fiscal 2000 and fiscal 2002, reaching about $50 million in fiscal 2002. In addition, the Appropriations Committee estimated that "there have been over 215 trips to China, South America, Africa, France, Italy and other countries since the beginning of 2003." The letter notes that the Park Service reduced its travel budget from $50 million to $44 million in fiscal 2003, however.

Foreign trips reported by the Park Service in fiscal 2003 and the first quarter of fiscal 2004 total $352,644, according to Interior Department documents. The largest single expenditure was for a trip by a staffer in the Alaska regional office to the Congo, at a $9,315 cost. Other trips include a $2,000 visit to Liechtenstein by a staffer at Grand Canyon National Park, and a $1,480 visit to Mexico by a staffer named Jose Sanchez of "unknown" headquarters. The agency's head of international affairs, Sharon Cleary, took four trips at a $19,251 cost, the most of any Park Service staffer -- two visits to France, and one each to China and South Africa.

The letter from Taylor and Dicks also criticizes the Park Service for initiating four large new construction projects, including a $100 million visitor center and museum complex at Valley Forge, Pa., "without any consultation with the committee," the lawmakers wrote. "The parks are a national treasure and the Park Service should not restrict our citizen's ability to enjoy them. Instead, you should properly manage existing resources in order to avoid shortfalls," the letter continued.

COMMENTS

• I find it very interesting that the Park Service can spend $94 million on travel but will fire anyone who says they need more resourses in their parks. The U.S. Park Police Chief is suspended pending termination for saying she needed $8 million more in her budget. Why isn't the head of NPS being fired for gross misuse of government funds? Timothy Cosgro Posted April 1, 2004 12:06 PM
• Why is everyone so focused on foreign trips? The total travel budget for most government operations is ridiculous. Foreign travel is a definite problem area for most federal employees. Domestic travel is highly questionable for most government employees. There are some exceptions, such as the auditors but there is little need for the amount of travel being done domesically as well as internationally! The government should reduce travel simply by reducing the budget for travel. Then only the top level managers would abuse travel. Now every government employee abuses travel. Oh itws for training, oh I have to teach them how to do it, oh we have to keep in touch with the operating level, oh they have good ideas and we need to study them. All bull! tax payer Posted March 29, 2004 6:40 AM
• Totally appalling! We just designed a math lesson for students at Jamestown. We need 1 mile of twine (rope, string, etc.)for students to measure one side of the original fort. We were informed that there was NO MONEY available. So glad that NSP has such moral standards!? How many people are going to be fired??? OK, I'll just buy the string myself--the students need this lesson to strengthen their skills. You know how important EDUCATION is to our youth--at least that's what the federal government keeps telling the public. Judith Sutter Posted March 25, 2004 7:48 PM