Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke pushes for national park funding in visit to Zion

The Bolings shared their observations with Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke on Monday as he and Utah Republican Congressmen Rob Bishop, Chris Stewart and John Curtis toured the park for a firsthand look at some of its $65 million in backlogged maintenance needs. Zinke, making his first trip to Zion, said visiting a national park should be a "five-star" experience. "We can do a lot better, and we should do a lot better," he said. Bishop is sponsoring a bipartisan measure to fund park maintenance using some of the royalties from energy development, including wind and solar, on public lands, money that now goes into the federal government's general fund. The Restore Our Parks and Public Lands Act, endorsed earlier this month on a rare voice vote in the Natural Resources Committee that Bishop heads, has broad bipartisan support with 175 co-sponsors, including Utah's four House members. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., the committee's ranking leader, is a co-leader of the bill...MORE