Park Service could get homeland security dollars
The Park Service’s job of protecting the national parks has grown since Sept. 11, according to a lawmaker.
A slice of the money that goes to homeland security should be carved out for the National Park Service, according to a House Government Reform subcommittee chairman.
Rep. Mark Souder, R-Ind., chairman of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on Criminal Justice, Drug Policy and Human Resources, said Friday that there is some agreement among congressional appropriators that the Park Service should receive additional funding for guarding 388 parks and 88 million acres of land throughout the United States.
He did not specify whether that money would come out of the Homeland Security Department's budget or from another source.
"There is a significant amount of terrorist talk about the national icons," Souder told Government Executive. "The park rangers that are being pulled in to do homeland security are being pulled from somewhere else."
For fiscal 2006, the Park Service budget request includes $2.2 billion in Interior Department appropriations for general operations and $320 million in Transportation Department appropriations for maintaining its 8,000 miles of roads.
The Park Service must maintain its vast tracts of land along with rising personnel costs, aging facilities and growing homeland security concerns. Souder said the agency should not be forced to choose between providing services to park visitors and protecting those sites from potential terrorist attacks.
Souder is holding a series of hearings to determine how the parks can be better managed. The lawmaker said the national parks are in peril, largely because of the tight federal budget.
Funding remains a controversial issue. The Park Service's former Park Police Chief Teresa Chambers was fired last year after she told The Washington Post in December 2003 that her police force was facing a personnel and budget shortfall. Chambers has since been replaced, but is still trying to get reinstated.
Steve Martin, the Park Service's deputy director, told Souder at the hearing that the agency has adequate funding and the Bush administration's plan to spend $4.9 billion over the next five years will help reduce the maintenance backlog.
"Right now, we have funding that allows us to respond in the parks to critical homeland security needs," Martin said. "I feel that we are meeting the responsibilities of protecting our sites."
Martin's statement contrasts claim by the nonprofit National Parks Conservation Association, which calculates that the agency operates on a $600 million shortfall and has a backlog of maintenance projects estimated at $4.5 billion to $9.7 billion.
The association's former chairwoman, Gretchen Long, told the subcommittee that the Park Service's additional homeland security expenses are causing compounded difficulties. Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Long said, the Park Service has spent an additional $40 million annually on security.