Rep. Raul Grijalva said Friday he doesn't expect the Senate during the lame duck session to pass legislation that would begin to make inroads on the National Park System's $11.6 billion maintenance backlog/NPS file
U.S. Representative Raúl Grijalva said Friday that he does not think the Senate will take up legislation that would make inroads against the National Park System's nearly $12 billion maintenance backlog during the current lame duck session, though onlookers remained hopeful.
During a call from his Washington, D.C., office, the Arizona Democrat who is expected to chair the House Natural Resources Committee in the new Congress said he's heard the Senate is not open to committing the $6.5 billion to addressing the maintenance backlog that the bipartisan Restore Our Parks legislation would provide over five years.
“I don’t think that’s going to go anywhere. I don’t think there’s any appetite in the Senate," the congressman said. "I think the Land and Water Conservation Fund, if we can come out of this lands package that’s being negotiated back and forth, if we can come out of the Land and Water Conservation Fund with a permanent authorization, then we’ll talk about mandated money in the coming session for both.”
A request to the staff of U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander, R-Tennessee, who was a chief sponsor of the Senate measure, to assess the bill's prospects was not immediately answered Friday.
As drafted, the legislation would create a “National Park Service Legacy Restoration Fund” to reduce the maintenance backlog by allocating existing revenues the government receives from on and offshore energy development. The $6.5 billion in funding envisioned by the legislation would come from 50 percent of all revenues that are not otherwise allocated and deposited into the General Treasury, not to exceed $1.3 billion each year for the next five years.
Since the Senate's deferred maintenance legislation would divert revenues that would normally flow into the General Treasury, there apparently is a feeling among some in that chamber that the measure would increase the federal deficit without a direct offset, even though the revenues are not currently committed. The Congressional Budget Office's analysis of a House measure that would address backlogged maintenance across the parks, U.S. Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Fish and Wildlife, and Bureau of Indian Education properties concluded that it would not affect revenues over a 10-year period.
"(Senate) Republicans just won’t sign off on spending money," said someone familiar with the talks. "I wish it were more baroque than that, but unfortunately we run into this same brick wall all the time. If it costs money and there’s no specific offset, McConnell and Co. just roll their eyes and say no, no matter who’s asking nicely."
The prospects of deficits didn't dissuade the GOP-led Congress from passing a $1.5 trillion tax cut measure a year ago. The CBO has estimated it will grow the federal deficit by $1.9 trillion over a decade.
At The Pew Charitable Trusts, Marcia Argust wasn't ready to give up on the deferred maintenance measure.
"I don’t think anything is set in stone at this point," Argust, who leads Pew's Restore America's Parks initiative, said Friday in an email.
Comments
U.S. Representative Raul Grijalva taking shots at Zinke before Grijalva assumes Committee Leadership will likely not help the cause, either. Not a smart move, but then the asumption of power does strange things to people.
The Restore Our Parks Act sounds like a great way to fund parks in a consistent and ongoing manner. Unfortunately, Mitch McConnell and the GOP leadership seem less than enthused.
Hopefully, they will still fully fund the Land and Water Conservation Fund and then perhaps we can get onto the Restore Our Parks Act in the next session.
WONDER HOW MANY NPS EMPLOYEES VOTED for the GOP AND CRIMINAL TRUMP ? thus PREFERING THE MEXICAN BORDER WALL Extension to increased National Parks Funding Including Maintenance ? Ironic, now we know that by Voting GOP, they have also prevented any additional federal salary increases; so, Lest We Forget, there are Narcissistic rage personalities within the higher ranks of the NPS including Interior's Zinke himself valuing their own EGOS more highly than professionally managing and respecting national parks natural resource values.
You nailed it, m13. And many of those idiots still support Trump.
Wrong thread.
Glad you noticed it, Tazzman. You raise an interesting possibility...though there are many miles in between these units. Still, one administrative staff might make sense.