Copyright 2000 Federal News Service, Inc.
Federal News Service
February 29, 2000, Tuesday
SECTION: PREPARED TESTIMONY
LENGTH: 1788 words
HEADLINE:
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DENIS P. GALVIN DEPUTY DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR
BEFORE THE SENATE
COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS,
HISTORIC PRESERVATION, AND RECREATION
SUBJECT - THE NATIONAL PARK
SERVICE BUDGET FOR FISCAL YEAR 2001
BODY:
Mr.
Chairman and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to
appear before you to discuss the Fiscal Year 2001 budget request of the National
Park Service. This request seeks to make the best possible use of funds to
manage and preserve our nation's great natural and cultural heritage, while
responding to the growing demand for visitor services at our national parks.
Overview
The National Park Service (NPS) budget request for
Fiscal Year 2001 totals $2.310 billion, which is
$248 million more than the enacted amount for Fiscal Year 2000.
Of the total, $2.042 billion would be provided by
appropriations, and the remaining $268 million would be derived
from recreation fees, concessions, and other sources. The funding would support
operations, maintenance, land acquisition, and construction at our 379 park
system units, which are expected to receive over 290 million visitors next year.
It would also support other activities conducted by NPS in the areas of historic
preservation, conservation, and recreation. The request includes
$317.5 million in support of the Administration's
$1.4 billion Lands Legacy Intiative proposal for Fiscal Year
2001.Closely aligned to the budget request is the NPS Annual Performance Plan
for Fiscal Year 2001, developed pursuant to the Government Performance and
Results Act (GPRA). The Annual Performance Plan expresses the goals that NPS
expects to achieve during FY 2001. Fulfilling these goals depends on funding
received, among other factors. The goals for 2001 have been refined on the basis
of actual performance results from the NPS Annual Performance Report for Fiscal
Year 1999, the first such report issued. Submission of our first Annual
Performance Report represents a milestone in the Park Service's increasing
understanding and expanding implementation of GPRA, and reflects how much NPS
has learned during the past several years about making performance management
work as its business system.
Park Operations
Spending on
activities, programs, and services essential to the day- to-day operation of
national parks, historic sites, national monuments, and other units managed by
the National Park Service accounts for about two-thirds of the NPS budget. To
fund these park operations in Fiscal Year 2001, the Administration is seeking
$1.454 billion, an increase of $90.3 million
over Fiscal Year 2000. This increase would address operating needs at 91 park
system units and the U.S. Park Police, address critical needs within the natural
and cultural resource programs, and enhance visitor services throughout the
National Park System.Represented within the operations increase are two key
initiatives. One is the Natural Resource Challenge, a five-year program that was
begun last year to expand our base of scientific knowledge about natural
resources in our parks, build the capability to implement solutions to resource
problems, and strengthen partnerships with the scientific community.
$18 million of the proposed operations increase would be used
for various components of this initiative, such as accelerating completion of
natural resource inventories at parks, eradicating invasive species,
establishing multi-agency Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units, monitoring water
quality in parks, improving air quality, and establishing Learning Centers that
will host park-related research. The Natural Resource Challenge implements the
provisions of Title II of the National Parks Omnibus Management Act (P.L.
105-391) which authorizes and directs the Secretary of the Interior to take
several specific steps to assure that management of units of the National Park
System is enhanced by the availability and utilization of a broad program of the
highest quality science and information.
Another $2.3
million of the operations increase would go to cultural resources protection for
a variety of preservation activities, including our three-year-old Vanishing
Treasures initiative. The goal of this initiative is to halt the deterioration
of prehistoric and historic sites and structures at 41 parks in the Southwest
and West and bring them to a condition in which they will be preserved by
routine maintenance activities. The program concentrates on hiring and training
individuals in the skills needed to accurately preserve these resources. Three
park units--Aztec Ruins National Monument, Casa Grande RuinsNational Monument,
and El Morro National Monument--would receive increases in their base funding
for this purpose.
National Recreation and Preservation
National
Recreation and Preservation activities would be funded at a level of
$68.6 million, a net increase of $15.2 million
over fiscal year 2000. This category covers a wide range of programs that
support local community efforts to preserve natural and cultural resources, such
as national heritage areas; the Federal Lands-to-Parks program; rivers, trails
and conservation assistance; the National Register of Historic Places; the
American Battlefield Protection Program; and statutory and contractual aid to
partner institutions.
The $15.2 million proposed
increase to this category is due largely to $20 million
proposed for Urban Parks and Recreation Recovery Act (UPARR) grants and their
administration, up from $2 million appropriated for that
purpose for Fiscal Year 2000. The revitalization of the UPARR program, which
provides matching grants (70 percent federal/30 percent local) for
rehabilitation of recreational facilities in inner-city neighborhoods, is part
of the Administration's Lands Legacy Initiative. The primary
reduction proposed for the National Recreation and Preservation category is the
$4.8 million net reduction in statutory and contractual
aid.Historic Preservation
The Historic Preservation Fund would be funded
at a level of $72 million for Fiscal Year 2001, compared to
$74.7 million in Fiscal Year 2000. The decrease is attributable
to a $2.7 million reduction in grants to Historically Black
Colleges and Universities (HBCU's), reflecting the progress that has been made
in reaching the total level of spending for the HBCU program authorized in the
Omnibus Parks and Public Lands Management Act of 1996 (P.L. 104-333). The
request includes $30 million for grants to save important
historic sites and cultural artifacts under the Save America's Treasures
program.
Construction
Construction and major maintenance is
proposed at a level of $180 million, a decrease of
$41.2 million below the Fiscal Year 2000 amount. The decrease
is attributable largely to a proposed $43 million reduction in
line-item construction and maintenance from the Fiscal Year 2000 level of
$151.4 million. The NPS has developed a 5-year priority list to
focus funding on projects that address the most critical health and safety needs
of the parks, fullfilling the Safe Visits to Public Lands initiative, as well as
high-priority natural and cultural resource protection.
The
proposal includes $5 million for rehabilitation of NPS employee
housing and trailer replacement, which was not funded at all in Fiscal Year
2000.In addition, although the funding comes through the Department of
Transportation, $165 million is authorized to be spent in
Fiscal Year 2001 on roads and alternative forms of transportation in national
park units through the Federal Lands Highways Program.
Land Acquisition
As part of the Administration's Lands Legacy
Initiative, the budget request includes $147.5 million
for land acquisition in units of the National Park System. Federal acquisition
priorities include $50 million for the Everglades ecosystem,
including a $47 million grant to the State of Florida on a
one-to-one cost-sharing basis; $22 million for threatened lands
at Civil War battlefield parks; $5.4 million to protect fragile
habitat at two park units in Southern California, Mojave National Preserve and
Santa Monica Mountains National Recreation Area; and $2.3
million for parks along the Lewis and Clark National Historic Trail.
The
request also proposes $150 million for matching Land and Water
Conservation Act state conservation grants, up from $40 million
in Fiscal Year 2000 ($20 million in NPS land acquisition
account and $20 million appropriated to the Department of the
Interior in Title VI of the Interior and Related Agencies Appropriations for
Fiscal Year 2000). Along with the UPARR program, the state grants program, which
is used for purchasing park land and developing outdoor recreational facilities,
was funded for the first time in five years in Fiscal Year 2000. The substantial
increases in funding proposed for both of these programs in Fiscal Year 2001, in
fulfillment of the Lands Legacy Initiative, wouldenable our
nation to make a significant investment in open space and recreational
opportunities that will improve the quality of life for Americans now and in the
future.
Permanent Appropriations
In funding that will result
from permanent appropriations, the Recreational Fee Demonstration Program is
projected to produce fee receipts of $148 million for NPS in
Fiscal Year 2001. Those funds would be used in addition to regular
appropriations to remedy repair and maintenance backlogs, enhance resource
management, and improve visitor services.
NPS also anticipates receiving
an estimated $12 million in Fiscal Year 2001 from the National
Parks Pass Program that was authorized by Title VI of the National Parks Omnibus
Management Act of 1998 (P.L. 105- 391). We are planning to initiate sales of
passes during National Parks Week which begins April 17, 2000. The receipts from
the pass program will be deposited in a special account and used for high
priority visitor service and resource management projects throughout the
National Park System.
Additionally, park concessions franchise fees are
expected to result in receipts of $16 million in Fiscal Year
2001, and concession improvement accounts are expected to produce
$22 million. Fiscal Year 2001 will be the third year in which
concessions fees are to be returned directly to NPS to be used to supplement
appropriated funds for visitor services and high-priority resource management
programs and operations. These fees are expected to increase in future years as
all new and renewed contracts come under theterms Title IV of the National Parks
Omnibus Management Act of 1998 (P.L. 105-391) and the regulations promulgated
pursuant to that law.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my prepared remarks.
I will be pleased to answer any questions you or other members of the
Subcommittee may have.
END
LOAD-DATE:
March 1, 2000 
