Park Service could hire more under Obama budget

The National Park Service could resume hiring rangers and seasonal staff and beef up visitor programs under President Barack Obama’s spending wish list for fiscal year 2015. The White House’s budget request to Congress, unveiled Tuesday, proposed giving the park service $55 million more than the $2.53 billion the agency got from Congress for the current fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said $30 million of proposed budget increase would be for the park service to operate the 401 parks, monuments, battlefields and other sites under its control. “That (money) largely goes to beefing up the people side,” Jewell told reporters in a conference call. “We’ve had significant cuts to things like seasonal ranger programs and other visitor services because the budgets have been tightened.” The budget request also calls on Capitol Hill lawmakers to provide a total of $1.2 billion over the next three years — $400 million a year — to rejuvenate the park service as it marks its 100th anniversary in 2016. The so-called Centennial Initiative is meant to chip away at the $11 billion backlog in long-delayed maintenance projects nationwide, hire more young people and military veterans, attract additional volunteers of all ages and boost private donations by providing for federal matching grants...more