Senate funding bill would boost NPS budget by 9 percent, to $2.93 billion/NPS file

A funding bill before the Senate provides for a 9 percent increase in operational funds for the National Park Service, and calls for a staffing increase of 1,000.

The $3.463 billion total for the Park Service includes a $340 million increase from the fiscal year 2021 level. If adopted by Congress and signed into law by President Biden, the agency's operations budget would increase to $2.93 billion.

There also would be $120 million for conservation initiatives ranging from the Civilian Climate Corps and climate-change research and planning to on-the-ground natural resources projects to protect wildlife, improve habitat, reduce wildfire fuels, and improve climate resilience.

“For too long, programs protecting public lands, public health, and the environment and supporting tribal communities have been operating on fumes," U.S. Sen. Jeff Merkley, an Oregon Democrat who chairs the chamber's Department of the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Subcommittee, said Monday after the committee endorsed the bill.

"I’m proud to announce that this bill makes unprecedented investments to address climate chaos, respond to and prevent climate driven wildfires, protect natural places and wildlife, restore the rightful place of science, and rebuild capacity at federal agencies," the senator added. "The bill also makes transformative change in Indian Country by boosting funding for tribal health care by a full 25 percent, and providing budgetary certainty – for the first time ever – through advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service and full funding for contract support costs and tribal leases."

The measure also provides $1.9 billion for deferred maintenance projects for the National Park Service, the Bureau of Land Management, the Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Indian Education, and the Forest Service as part of a five-year deferred maintenance initiative under Great American Outdoors Act.

“This is exactly the bill that our parks need after years of struggling. This would set them on the right path, bringing rangers back into our parks and addressing climate change," said John Garder, senior director of budget and appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association. “It’s critical that both parties sit down and move this bill forward. It would be a travesty for our parks and people if this bill doesn’t land on the president’s desk.”