Advocates Urge Support For National Parks Funding

The "Restore Our Parks Act" is scheduled for a Congressional hearing today and, if approved, could send up to $6.5 billion toward clearing a nearly $12 billion backlog of repairs in the National Park Service system. The nation's parks are continuing to grow in popularity, with some 331 million visitors last year. However, the direct upkeep of those parks has fallen by the wayside with a growing backlog of routine maintenance. The bipartisan bill, pushed by Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., is being considered in the U.S. Senate's Energy and Natural Resources Committee's subcommittee on national parks. It would create the National Park Service Legacy Fund, which would use money generated from onshore and offshore drilling to address the backlog...More