WASHINGTON D.C. – U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine), Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on National Parks, today wrote a letter to Department of the Interior Acting Secretary David Bernhardt to underscore the adverse effects the 21 day-old partial government shutdown is having on the National Parks System.

“I respect that the National Park Service is in a difficult place of attempting to operate in some capacity during the shutdown that Congress continues to work to resolve, and that park units remaining accessible is important to many economies that surround popular parks,” Senator King said in the letter. “However, it is critical that the Park Service takes public safety seriously in this scenario where so many park employees are furloughed.  I ask that you please provide details of what the Park Service is doing to maintain public safety during this shutdown where so few park employees and emergency response capabilities are available.

“Further, there are troubling reports of potentially irreversible environmental degradation happening in the national parks. The language of the Organic Act which created the National Park Service in 1916 states the mission of the Park Service is to conserve these places and ‘leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations,’ and many are concerned that, without the proper park employees in place, more serious environmental damage may be done to these important and beloved places.  I ask that you please provide in detail how the Park Service plans to address such damage, and prevent further damage during this shutdown scenario.”

Senator King has been a longtime supporter of the National Parks System, and in December spoke on the Senate floor to advocate for the Restore Our Parks Act, a bipartisan bill led by that would address the $12 billion deferred maintenance backlog at the National Park Service (NPS). Senator King is a lead sponsor of the bipartisan bill along with Senators Rob Portman (R-Ohio), Mark Warner (D-Va.) and Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.). More specifically, the Restore Our Parks Act would establish the “National Park Service Legacy Restoration Fund” to reduce the maintenance backlog by allocating existing revenues the government receives from on and offshore energy development. This consensus legislation has been praised by witnesses at a Subcommittee on National Parks hearing in July. In September he joined Acting Director of the National Park Service, Dan Smith, on a tour of Acadia National Park to assess the park’s critical maintenance needs. He has also pushed for modernizations to make the parks more accessible to future generations, including the implementation of a pilot program to make entrance passes for parks available online, that was lauded in a Subcommittee hearing last year. The program has been particularly successful in Acadia National Park (ANP); Acadia accounts for 72% of total sales in the pilot program, and online purchases accounted for 10% of the park’s total entrance fee receipts in 2016. 

Senator King has repeatedly called to reopen the government to fairly compensate federal workers who are furloughed or working without pay and to ensure businesses, contractors, and people who rely on federal government agencies can access the services they need.

The full letter can be read HERE and below.

+++

The Honorable David Bernhardt

Acting Secretary                                                  

Department of Interior

1849 C Street NW

Washington, D.C. 20240

Dear Acting Secretary Bernhardt:

As the Ranking Member of the National Parks Subcommittee on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, I write with concerns regarding the safety of the visitors and the potential environmental harm to the national park units during the on-going government shutdown. 

As the public continues to access the country’s national parks under the Interior Department’s decision to leave most park units accessible, but in a scenario of a government shutdown where 16,000 of the park service’s 19,000 workers are furloughed, there are obvious concerns for the safety of visitors to popular park destinations.  For example, there are already reports of some visitors getting into dangerous and life threatening situations that would have otherwise not occurred in normal operating circumstances. I respect that the National Park Service is in a difficult place of attempting to operate in some capacity during the shutdown that Congress continues to work to resolve, and that park units remaining accessible is important to many economies that surround popular parks.  However, it is critical that the Park Service takes public safety seriously in this scenario where so many park employees are furloughed.  I ask that you please provide details of what the Park Service is doing to maintain public safety during this shutdown where so few park employees and emergency response capabilities are available.

Further, there are troubling reports of potentially irreversible environmental degradation happening in the national parks.  The language of the Organic Act which created the National Park Service in 1916 states the mission of the Park Service is to conserve these places and “leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations,” and many are concerned that, without the proper park employees in place, more serious environmental damage may be done to these important and beloved places.  I ask that you please provide in detail how the Park Service plans to address such damage, and prevent further damage during this shutdown scenario.

I understand that these are trying circumstances for the government agencies that are being impacted by the shutdown.  It is my hope that by working together, we can be sure the public is being served in the best way possible under the regrettable shutdown circumstances in which we find ourselves.