Interior Secretary Zinke told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that too many free and discounted passes into the National Park System are part of the Park Service's funding problems.
Editor's note: This corrects that fourth-graders, not 4-year-olds, can get a free parks pass, and adds reaction to Secretary Zinke's comments from a military veteran.
Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke says free or discounted passes given to senior citizens, active military, disabled, and even fourth-graders and their families are part of the reason for the National Park Service's funding problems.
During an at times contentious appearance before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the secretary, explaining why he's considering a surge pricing system for 17 national parks, said parks are losing too much money to those pass programs.
"I've spent a lot of time in a (park) kiosk, and it's amazing, in our parks, which the maintenance (backlog) as you know, we're far behind," the secretary told the committee Tuesday while explaining the Trump administration's FY2019 budget proposal for the Interior Department. "But when you give discounted or free passes to elderly, fourth-graders, veterans, disabled, and you do it by the carload, there's not a whole lot of people that actually pay at our front door.
"As well as you have a lot of foreign guests," he added. "We're looking at ways to make sure we have more revenue in the front door of our parks themselves. Because when you have a park like (Mount) Rainier, the money they receive coming in the front gate, I want to make sure more of it goes to that park superintendent so he has flexibility in how he spends it."
Under current pass programs, senior citizens 62 and older can purchase a lifetime pass to the parks for $80 (the fee had been $10 until it increased last year), fourth-grade students can receive a free pass through the Every Kid in a Park program started by the Obama administration, active military and their dependents gain free passes, and U.S. citizens who are permanently disabled receive free passes.
While Secretary Zinke said too much of entrance fee revenues go back to Washington, D.C., under current regulations 80 percent of the fees collected in a park stay there, while the other 20 percent is sent to Washington to be redistributed to other areas, including to parks that do not collect entrance fees.
He did acknowledge that park fees alone won't significantly address the park system's $11.7 billion maintenance backlog.
"But a lot of our parks have record visitation," he said. "We expect them to have record visitation again."
Under questioning from Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Washington, Secretary Zinke said he wasn't suggesting that the free entry given to military, seniors, and fourth-graders should be done away with.
"No, what I'm saying is this: We subsidize and we allow, by design, a lot of people to go through. If you're in a car and you have a veteran in the car, everyone, whether they're a veteran or not, is free in that car," said Secretary Zinke. "Same thing with disabled, same thing with elderly, on passes. Basically, one person with a pass, everyone in that car comes in for free. Whether or not that's correct, we're looking at it."
The secretary's comments drew criticism from an Army veteran who is a senior campaign representative for the Sierra Club's Military Outdoors program.
“I’m a veteran who helps other veterans and their families get outdoors because our public lands can ease the transition from active duty to active citizenship, and are spaces to heal emotionally and physically," said Rob Vessels. "It’s insulting to have the Secretary of the Interior blame me and other veterans for the fact that he won’t fund our national parks properly. I served my country to help protect institutions like our national parks, and have dedicated my life to expanding access to the outdoors for all people. Secretary Zinke should learn to speak more respectfully about veterans before he uses us as a tool for his political agenda to shut working families out of our national parks.”
Secretary Zinke also told the committee that the $80 America the Beautiful parks pass, which allows holders to enter parks as many times as they want for a one-year period, is an incredible bargain, saying he took his family to a movie the other night and that the bill, which included popcorn, came to more than $80.
He said that his staff's review of park fee structures is designed to "make sure that revenue coming into the door of our principal parks is appropriate, making sure that we still have value. Because American parks belong to the public, they belong to all Americans, and everyone should have access."
"We definitely believe we should be increasing access, not disincentivizing it," responded Sen. Cantwell.
Comments
But if one is a white male, sitting upon the top of the privilege pyramid, only respects the profit motive, 'ethics' is a null concept.
[nb: I'm also a white male, am aware of my privilege, and respect ethics over profit.]
With you on ethics Ron, but don't see greeting someone in Japanese as an ethical issue. BTW, I also haven't seen you screeming about Ethics when it comes down to Hillary, Lois Lerner, Comey, McCabe ................................................
y_p_w, & tomp2 It may or may not have been out of line. I wasn't there and assume you weren't either so it could have been an intentional slight, a clumsy attempt at humor or a perfectly respectful greeting. It was after all (according to the article) Colleen Hanabusa who first made a point of bringing up her Japanese heritage and connection and seemed to take exception not at his use of a Japanese word but which word he chose which to me is equally childish. If intended as a slight then yes, it was disgusting but that is not how the article portrayed it. I am also not advocating we don't preserve this part of our history, quite the opposite actually. My whole point was the overall childish nature of the article and I guess politics in general these days. Rather than focus on the issue at hand the press and apparently a few others choose to focus on what word was used. One would think they were all back in grade school.
@ rmackie - I think ethics (and morals) are extremely important everywhere and especially so in our political and legal systems. That they have been on the decline not only in politics but throughout our society for a long time now is indeed troubling.
I just read that Zinke has his own commemorative coin. How nice, it's called a challenge coin
We're dealing with the Trump administration, where Trump himself is the leader in grade school insults. But Zinke doesn't seem to understand how he is perceived. And the issue at hand is that he's more like the modern day equivalent of James Watt rather than his purported hero Teddy Roosevelt.
Yes, and that is one thing that doesn't appeal to me about the man. But grade school insults have nothing to do with ethics. Nor do they have anything to do with attempting to connect with someone by using a greeting in the language of their heritage, especially when they have made a point of their heritage.
And by the why, I will take grade school insults in exchange for expanding economic growth, declining food stamps an expanding workforce, more secure borders and a denuclearized North Korea any time.
North Korea has been denuclearized? Talk about fake news!
Dana Milbank of the Washington Post had an interesting take on this:
Even after he had time to reflect, Zinke was unapologetic. "How could ever saying 'Good morning' be bad?" he said over the weekend.
Actually, it's closer to "Good afternoon," but let's follow Zinke's logic on this: He'll soon be greeting a Jewish lawmaker with "Shalom," an African American lawmaker with "Jambo," Mexican American questioners with a spirited "Que pasa?" and Native Americans with "How." It is the benevolent ruler who greets the natives in their ancestral tongues.