Bipartisan legislation before the Senate would finally designate congressional funds to take care of about $12 billion of deferred maintenance for national parks.
The that鈥檚 currently before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee would commit up to $6.5 billion to funding parks maintenance over the next five years. Those funds would come from fees on energy developers.
Phil Francis with the Coalition to Protect America鈥檚 National Parks supports the legislation. He says the typical way that Congress funds the national parks doesn鈥檛 match with America鈥檚 love for them.
"It鈥檚 almost like, we鈥檙e buying a house and we鈥檙e saying, 'well we like this house and it鈥檚 really important for us, but we鈥檙e not going to maintain it adequately.' And that鈥檚 not a winning formula at all," said Francis.
In national parks the maintenance backlog totals about $1.5 billion. The bill currently has no congressional co-sponsors from our region, but Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has voiced his support for the legislation. The Senate committee will take up the legislation this Wednesday.
Find reporter Amanda Peacher on Twitter .
Copyright 2018 Boise State Public Radio
This story was produced by the Mountain West 暗黑爆料 Bureau, a collaboration between Wyoming Public Media, Boise State Public Radio in Idaho, Yellowstone Public Radio in Montana, KUER in Salt Lake City and KRCC and KUNC in Colorado .
Copyright 2020 Boise State Public Radio 暗黑爆料. To see more, visit . 9(MDAxNDQ2NDAxMDEyNzU2NzM2ODA3ZGI1ZA001))
