Another Day in the Park as Coburn Report Exposes Massive Waste at the National Park Service

NPS Historic Preservation Training Center in MD (courtesy Wikimedia Commons)

Though the nation just celebrated Halloween and TPA highlighted some of the worst and most expensive tricks elected officials have played on Americans this past year, the hits seem to just keep on coming. Waste by government agencies is nothing new, and this year we have highlighted many  terrible examples of exactly the kind of waste that takes place be it at the Veterans Affairs, Department of Homeland Security, or the Internal Revenue Service; just to name a few. Now, a recent report released by Senator Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) exposes a continuous string of dereliction that Congress is engaging in wasting tax dollars through the National Park Service (NPS).

The report, PARKED! How Congress’ Misplaced Priorities are Trashing Our National Treasures, lays out some of the most egregious examples of exactly how the NPS has become such a bastion of wasteful spending and outright dysfunction. The continued addition of new federal land and federal parks while simultaneously allowing existing properties to go without proper maintenance has created a massive backlog, while adding to the budget costs of additional properties. The backlog isn’t the only problem as there are countless examples that highlight the spending problem at NPS:

• $11.5 billion in a deferred maintenance backlog for NPS;
• $30 million for a campaign to celebrate the NPS 100 Year Anniversary Celebration;
• $3.4 million annually for a Natural Sounds Program;
• $731,000 spent investigating Gateway Arch for cleaning, but there was no cleaning done. The reasoning: the NPS didn’t want to waste dollars “starting a process that was incorrect,” which included 7 years and 3 studies;
• $367,000 for multiple music festivals in 2013;
• $174,000 for a 3D HD Underwater Imaging Project;
• $79,000 collecting data on “Visitor Perceptions of Climate Change in U.S. National Parks;”
• $25,000 on NPS Video Game Production; and
• $2,500 for inflatable water rides in Iowa

With 200 pages of material, that was just a small sampling of the massive waste taxpayers are footing the bill for at NPS.  In typical fashion, Sen. Coburn pulled no punches when he discussed the NPS report last week:

“Perhaps more than any other part of the federal government, our National Park System has become the unfortunate symbol of the dysfunction in Washington, DC.”

On an optimistic note, there is agreement with the findings and the diagnosis from Sen. Coburn to stop adding more federal land. Considering the currently owned properties are not being taken care of in the first place, this is an opportunity where elected officials, policy makers, and the private sector should be able to come together to forge a meaningful solution that benefits Americans and saves money in a time when the nation is saddled with massive debt. Former Interior Secretary Gale Norton (2001-2006) weighed in on this issue just a few days ago:

“Definitely, we should think carefully before establishing any new parks. We’ve had a proliferation of parks without considering long-term funding, and that is a very important part of the overall budget solution.”

Earlier this year, Reps. Donna Edwards (D-Md.) and Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-Texas) co-sponsored “The Apollo Lunar Landing Legacy Act,” which would establish a national park on the moon.  An insane idea considering this recent report and the fact that we need to take care of the parks on earth.

The billions of dollars in backlogged maintenance, combined with the overall waste on projects and initiatives taxpayers have no need for nor should be paying for is reason enough to upset any individual who listened the constant drumbeat of how awful it was that parks were closed during the government shutdown. The blatant hypocrisy of elected officials saying they care about these federal lands, while at the same time adding to a National Park Service budget that is out of control is unacceptable.