Traveler's View: Let Them Know What You Think

Who wouldn't want to spend a long, early fall weekend in Grand Teton National Park? Especially if you don't have to pay for it?

Apparently, U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, the Arkansas Republican who chairs the House Natural Resources Committee, couldn't pass one up, especially on official business.

Westerman, you see, has scheduled a committee hearing this Friday in the park under the guise of preparing the National Park Service for the country's 250th birthday next year. 

The 10 a.m. MT hearing — “The Great American Outdoors Act: Modernizing and Maintaining National Parks to Celebrate America’s 250th Birthday” — will be held on the plaza outside the tiny Jenny Lake Visitor Center (a century-old log cabin that started out as Harrison Crandall's photo studio) to "examine opportunities to reauthorize and reform the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA) to enhance public access, improve infrastructure, and create new outdoor recreation opportunities at our national parks."

Does he really need a hearing to figure those issues out? It's good that reauthorizing the GAOA, which is set to sunset at year's end, is on Westerman's mind. But if he's truly concerned about the future of the Park Service, what was he thinking while sitting quietly by as the Trump administration took a wrecking ball approach to managing the National Park Service and National Park System?

If he really wants to ready the Park Service for the birthday bash, Westerman and his Republican allies in Congress could focus on reversing the administration's reduction of Park Service staffing by roughly roughly 25 percent, ending the hiring freeze on the agency, and relaxing spending requirements on it. None of those steps have helped improve the parks. As a bonus, the Republicans could make it clear to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum that discarding units of the park system won't be done.

Witnesses for Friday's hearing are invitation only, and hopefully some who are invited will speak out against those administration cuts and of Congress's approval of pulling back $267 million in Inflation Reduction Act funding from the Park Service. That $267 million cut was made through passage of the One Big Beautiful Bill legislation, which Westerman said would "generate billions of dollars in new revenue for the federal government, restore American energy dominance, turbocharge critical mineral development, streamline permitting processes and promote an all-of-the-above energy future."

Friday's hearing is expected to be available on the web.

If you're in Grand Teton this weekend, stop by the Jenny Lake Visitor Center on Friday morning and see if you can catch a whiff of what Westerman is thinking. And while you probably won't be allowed to testify, you could let him know what you think of the Park Service and the parks after the hearing.

Renewing the GAOA would be a boon for the parks and local economies. According to Interior, the GAOA has funded projects that "have repaired or replaced more than 3,800 assets, including recreation facilities, water and utility systems, Bureau of Indian Education-funded schools, hunting and fishing infrastructure, historic structures and other critical infrastructure. Each year, Interior’s GAOA-funded projects support an average of 17,000 jobs and contribute about $1.9 billion to the national economy, benefiting gateway and local communities by supporting outdoor recreation and tourism."

Legislation to replace the GAOA was introduced into the U.S. Senate earlier this year. Sponsored by Angus King, an independent from Maine, and Steve Daines, a Montana Republican, the America the Beautiful Act would reauthorize the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) for eight years and increase its funding to $2 billion a year.