{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/parks-chairman-king-presses-biden-administration-on-inadequate-parks-maintenance-budget-and-staffing-shortages", "Parks Chairman King Presses Biden Administration on \u201cInadequate\u201d Parks Maintenance Budget, and Staffing Shortages", "2022-12-13", "2022", "2022-12", "Independent", "Senate", "ME", "Angus S. King, Jr.", "K000383", "www.king.senate.gov", "angusking", "https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/table", "scraper", "Senator cites Acadia visitor surge as example of hiring necessary; view questioning HERE\n\nWASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S Senator Angus King (I-Maine), Chair of the Senate National Parks Subcommittee, today pressed a top Biden administration official on two of his top priorities for the National Park Service (NPS): securing enough funding for necessary park maintenance and ensuring sufficient staffing of America\u2019s greatest treasures. In a hearing of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, King questioned Department of Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau on the Department\u2019s plans to address both of these issues as it processes the NPS funding of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and the Inflation Reduction Act. The Deputy Secretary agreed that more needs to be done to support the Parks System.\n\nThis builds on the Chairman\u2019s recent pushes to expand maintenance funding and increase NPS staffing in the forthcoming fiscal year 2023 budget bill.\n\nBeginning his remarks, Chairman King highlighted the administration\u2019s recent budget requests and the need for additional funding to ensure maintenance and upkeep of our National Parks\n\n\u201cWhat bothered me is the administration's budget for maintenance in the national parks was inadequate. The general rule of thumb is 2 to 4% of capital value for maintenance every year. I think the budget this year is about 1%. That's not an indictment of this administration. That's been the pattern for the past 25 or 30 years. That's how we got into this hole,\u201d said Senator King. \u201cThis committee and the Congress worked very hard on the Great American Outdoors Act to tackle the maintenance backlog. But it's pretty frustrating to see that we're still digging the hole. So I hope you'll take back to the department the point that we can't expect Congress to come to the rescue of the maintenance backlog every four or five years, if indeed the budget is inadequate and makes the hole deeper every four or five years.\u201d\n\n\u201cThank you. And thank you for your leadership and partnership on these issues. I will definitely take that back, including to OMB,\u201d the Deputy Secretary replied.\n\n+++\n\nAfter securing funding in the Inflation Reduction Act, the Chairman also asked about the department\u2019s hiring plan to staff National Parks:\n\n\u201cAnother area of increased funding has been in the Inflation Reduction Act for staffing at the national parks. And I wanted to inquire if the department is moving toward implementation. Senator Daines and I have called for 23,000 FTEs at the national parks because we're having a huge increase in visitation and in fact, we have lower staffing than we had 15 years ago. 10 or 15 years ago. Do you have a hiring plan and will you be able to get to the 23,000 figure in the reasonably foreseeable future,\u201d Senator King asked.\n\nThe Deputy Secretary responded, \u201cThank you. And thank you again for these investments. The Park Service has developed internal guidance and hiring plan directed towards this summer. As you know, Senator, the largest demand period and largest stress on our national parks is during the summer season.\u201d\n\n\u201cLast summer, we had 4 million people at Acadia National Park,\u201d the Senator replied.\n\nThe Deputy Secretary concluded, \u201cSo part of our strategy to take advantage of these resources is focused on seasonal hiring in the coming year. And the Park Service has developed guidance disseminated to the parks for exactly that purpose.\u201d\n\n+++", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T03:32:05Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.king.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/parks-chairman-king-presses-biden-administration-on-inadequate-parks-maintenance-budget-and-staffing-shortages"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.169085968285799, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}