{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-exposes-national-park-services-100000-flower-show-latest-waste-report/", "Dr. Rand Paul Exposes the National Park Service\u2019s $100,000 \u2018Flower Show\u2019 in Latest \u2018The Waste Report\u2019", "2015-09-28", "2015", "2015-09", "Republican", "Senate", "KY", "Rand Paul", "P000603", "www.paul.senate.gov", "paul", "https://www.paul.senate.gov/news/", "scraper", "WASHINGTON, D.C. \u2013 U.S. Senator Rand Paul today released the latest edition to \u2018The Waste Report,\u2019 an ongoing project cataloguing egregious examples of waste within the U.S. government. The latest edition exposes the federal government spending $100,000 of taxpayer dollars on a \u201cflower show\u201d in Philadelphia, Pa., celebrating the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service.\n\n\u2018The Waste Report\u2019 can be found HERE or below.\n\nIf you are a national parks enthusiast, then you probably already know that next year marks the 100th Anniversary of the National Park Service (Park Service). However, you probably did not know as part of its Centennial Celebration, the Park Service is planning to spend $100K for a \u201cflower show\u201d in Philadelphia, Pa., this upcoming March.[1]\n\nThe Philadelphia Flower Show is an event the Pennsylvania Horticulture Society (PHS) puts on every year going back to 1829. This year\u2019s theme is \u201cExplore America: 100 Years of the National Park Service,\u201d and will span over 33-acres of the Philadelphia Convention Center, and include the NPS \u201cFind Your Park\u201d pavilion.[2]\n\nWhile the flower show itself is a remarkable event and the nearly 200-year old PHS uses the proceeds to finance charitable activities \u2013 the question remains, why is this the Park Service\u2019s best use of taxpayer money?\n\nThis is especially troubling considering the Park Service and their supporters have cried foul for years over the agency\u2019s funding. The National Parks Conservation Association said earlier this year that \u201cthe current Fiscal Year 2015 funding level for national parks is vastly insufficient to bring parks back to where they were, and where they need to be\u2014especially in advance of the 2016 Centennial.\u201d[3]\n\nAdditionally in 2012, the Washington Post reported that the Park Service\u2019s financial situation has caused the Blue Ridge Parkway to be \u201c\u2026unable to fill 75 vacant positions since 2003\u201d and \u201c[f]or the past three years, New Mexico\u2019s Bandelier National Monument has lacked the money to hire a specialist to protect its archaeological ruins and resources.\u201d[4]\n\nWhile some of our national parks are facing staffing shortfalls, the Park Service included in its grant notice that it would \u201cprovide one full-time staff member as a point of contact to [PHS] for the duration of the project,\u201d as well as provide staffing at the Park Service pavilion when the flower show takes place in March.[5] It is just a little hard to swallow that on one hand there are cries of a lack of funds and personnel at parks, then on the other you hear money and staff can be found for a flower show.\n\n###", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-08T20:25:19Z"]], "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.paul.senate.gov/news-dr-rand-paul-exposes-national-park-services-100000-flower-show-latest-waste-report/"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.604988006874919, "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"}