Hoeffel says Valley Forge gift was a casualty of turf war

Warring bureaucracies may have been behind Monday's sudden decision by the National Park Service to cancel fund-raising for the American Revolution Center at Valley Forge - a day before it was due to receive a $10 million check from the Oneida Indian Nation.

U.S. Rep. Joe Hoeffel (D., Pa.) said yesterday that a "turf battle" between the National Park Service and the staffs of various congressional appropriations subcommittees may have burst into the open at a very inappropriate time.

"There is no way they should have canceled the gift ceremony," Hoeffel said. "I think the Park Service hit the panic button here."

But Hoeffel and several other members of the region's congressional delegation said yesterday that they were committed to making sure that the project remains on track.

The American Revolution Center is a $100 million museum project being developed in partnership with the Park Service's Valley Forge National Historical Park. So far, the State of Pennsylvania has committed $20 million to the project, and Montgomery County $2.4 million. The gift from the Oneidas, along with other donations, would have put the project more than a third of the way toward its goal.

But the Park Service said that language contained in the appropriations bill for the Department of Interior that passed the House on Thursday night forced the cancellation.

The bill calls for written approval from both the House and Senate Appropriations Committees for any partnership project over $5 million, and it said that until that written approval is received, all fund-raising must stop....