Editor's note: This updates to reflect that $15 million of the $33 million Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has committed to fix Arlington Memorial Bridge from National Park Service funds came from the agency's Fiscal 2017 budget, uand pdates that Congress earlier this year passed an omnibus budget bill that provided $257 million for maintenance projects in the park system.
More than a quarter-billion dollars has been committed this fiscal year to address National Park System infrastructure needs as diverse as critical bridge repairs, sewer system fixes, and trail work deep underground. But the list of projects, and their costs, released Wednesday by Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke raised questions concerning funding sources and approved projects.
Among those questions was where did the secretary find $12 million to fund reconstruction of the Sperry Chalet in Glacier National Park, a project that is being rushed through the channels to get under way this summer? That project, and four or five others totaling tens of millions of dollars, were not in the budget passed by Congress, according to outside budget analysts.
While the National Park Service's Fiscal 2018 construction budget originally contained $209.7 million, the omnibus bill passed by Congress this past March bumped that to around $257 million, Park Service spokesman Jeremy Barnum said Wednesday evening in an email.
In a somewhat unusual budget maneuver, Interior took $15 million from unspent money in its FY17 construction budget and combined that with the $18.2 million from the current fiscal year to come up with the Park Service's $33 million contribution towards the Arlington Memorial Bridge repair project, which carries a $227 million price tag. Completing the funding is $74 million in Federal Lands Transportation Program funds, $30 million made available through an amendment U.S. Sen. Mark Warner, D-Virginia, attached to the Fiscal 2017 Appropriations Act, and $90 million from a FASTLANE grant.
Rebuilding Sperry Chalet, which burned down last September when the Sprague wildfire swept over it, has been a priority for the Interior secretary, who is from Montana. Glacier staff released their environmental review concerning rebuilding the lodge in mid-May. Two days later, the Park Service quietly asked a small handful of companies to bid on the project, an unusual approach that Park Service staff in Denver told the Hungry Horse News was allowed due to the "unusual and compelling urgency" of the project.
And now Secretary Zinke somewhere has come up with $12 million to pay for rebuilding Sperry, which caters to backcountry travelers willing to hike more than six miles to reach the lodge and pay about $200 a night. Park Service and Interior staff didn't immediately explain where that money is coming from.
"It's certainly very unusual," said John Garder, the National Parks Conservation Association's senior director of budget and appropriations, of the quick-paced approach being taken to rebuild the chalet, which can house roughly 54 guests a night.
The National Park Service during Fiscal 2017 spent more than $650 million in maintenance and repair work, according to Interior, yet "resource constraints have kept the maintenance backlog between $11 billion and $12 billion since 2010."
The list released by the Interior Department included the following projects:
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Comments
More details, please ! If the administration will clarify.
— how much from the Federal Lands Transportation Fund? NONE of the bridge or road money should come from NPS maintenance Appropriation. You mention the piece for Memorial Bridge: but what from this account over all? If they are cheating us on Transpo money, that would explain why so much of this is going for road projects.
— Why is the NPS paying for maintenance for a concessioner facility? wouldn’t the concession contract have all maintenance needs built in, and paid by concessions revenue?
— why are so many large parks the beneficiaries here? Don’t those parks have large visitor fees available, while small parks do not? What is happening with prioritizing?
— why aren’t flood recovery maintenance Appropriations here coming from the congressional emergency flood appropriations? Typically that is how NPS covers those costs. Is Congress failing to fund emergency recovery because of massive tax cuts for the rich?
Kurt - we cannot expect you alone to get to the bottom of all these needs. It seems they do not want to say, but then, why not?
But speaking rhetorically, it seems the Administration is not being forthright about why additional, and traditional, funding sources do not seem to be on the table, except for the $70M for Mem Bridge.
And more interestingly, what do these changes mean about changed national budgetary priorities. . .