Morning, everyone. The committee will come to order. Were here to examine the deferred maintenance needs of the public Land Management agencies. This is a topic i care about. I know each of you certainly, the folks on this committee, have expressed concern. Not just coming into this hearing today, but, really, over the years. When we consider deferred maintenance, we most commonly think of the 12 billion maintenance backlog accrued by the National Park service. We consider that here in the committee at great length and it rightfully continues to attract a great deal of national attention. But somehow and sometimes overlooked in this conversation are the deferred maintenance needs of the other federal Land Management agencies, including the Forest Service, the bureau of Land Management and fish and Wildlife Service. Combined with the park service, these four agencies face a deferred maintenance backlog totalling 19. 4 billion. Thats worthy of repeating. Within these four agencies that g
After dodging a blow that would have come with a government shutdown, the National Park Service is focused on a bigger challenge in Congress as it struggles to catch up with a maintenance backlog of more than $22 billion. Debate over the Park Service budget will come to a head again this fall, with House and Senate appropriators about $400 million apart on the Interior Department agency’s budget in their fiscal 2024 funding bills. A website listing the needs at all 63 major parks and some of the smaller units tells the story: Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and the National Mall in Washington, D.C., each has more than $1 billion in needs.
After dodging a blow that would have come with a government shutdown, the National Park Service is focused on a bigger challenge in Congress as it struggles to catch up with a maintenance backlog of more than $22 billion. Debate over the Park Service budget will come to a head again this fall, with House and Senate appropriators about $400 million apart on the Interior Department agency’s budget in their fiscal 2024 funding bills. A website listing the needs at all 63 major parks and some of the smaller units tells the story: Yellowstone National Park, Yosemite National Park and the National Mall in Washington, D.C., each has more than $1 billion in needs.
After dodging a blow that would have come with a government shutdown, the National Park Service is focused on a bigger challenge in Congress as it struggles to catch up