Synopsis "National Park Service: FY2015 Appropriations and Recent Trends (in English)"
The National Park Service (NPS) receives appropriations in the annual Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bill. For FY2015, the Obama Administration requested $2.615 billion in discretionary appropriations for NPS, an increase of $53.1 million (2.1%) over the enacted FY2014 amount of $2.562 billion. On December 16, 2014, the President signed into law P.L. 113-235, which contained FY2015 appropriations of $2.615 billion for NPS-the same amount as was requested by the President. Although the total NPS discretionary appropriation matches the President's request, amounts for some individual accounts differ from those requested. Earlier, on July 23, 2014, the House Appropriations Committee had reported H.R. 5171, which would have appropriated $2.573 billion for NPS-$11.9 million (0.5%) more than the FY2014 total and $41.1 million less than the President's request (-1.6%). On August 1, 2014, the Chairman of the Senate Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies had released a draft bill and accompanying report, which would have appropriated $2.633 billion for NPS-$71.2 million (2.8%) more than the FY2014 appropriation, $18.1 million (0.7%) more than the President's request, and $68.3 million (2.7%) more than the House committee. Neither measure saw further action. Because no regular appropriations acts for FY2015 were enacted prior to the end of FY2014, three continuing resolutions (P.L. 113-164, P.L. 113-202, and P.L. 113-203) provided appropriations for NPS through December 16, 2014. In addition to the discretionary funding, the Administration had also requested increases in NPS mandatory appropriations for FY2015. The Administration proposed $1.033 billion in mandatory appropriations for NPS, more than twice the FY2014 level of $424.2 million (+143.5%). Some of the mandatory appropriations would have required changes in authorizing law. The discretionary and mandatory requests brought the Administration's total request for NPS for FY2015 to $3.647 billion, an increase of $662 million (or 22.2%) over the FY2014 total of $2.986 billion. NPS stated that much of the increased funding would be used to address the agency's growing backlog of deferred maintenance, in connection with its upcoming centennial anniversary in 2016. The 113th Congress did not take action on the mandatory funding legislation requested by NPS. This report discusses NPS's FY2015 appropriations and also examines trends in the agency's discretionary appropriations over the past decade (FY2005-FY2014). NPS appropriations rose and fell during that time. Overall, the enacted discretionary appropriation for FY2014 showed an increase of 8.3% in nominal dollars, but a decrease of 7.4% in inflation-adjusted dollars, compared to a decade earlier (FY2005). For most of this time, the NPS discretionary appropriation included five accounts. The largest by far is the "Operation of the National Park System" (ONPS) account, which supports the activities, programs, and services that form the day-to-day operations of the park system. The majority of ONPS funds are provided directly to managers of individual park units. This account grew over the decade by 8.5% in inflation-adjusted dollars. The other four accounts showed declines over the decade, ranging from 15% to 67% in inflation-adjusted dollars. The funding changes took place in the context of stability in the size of the National Park System, which has remained at about 84.5 million acres over the past 10 years. NPS staffing levels rose somewhat, peaking at roughly 22,000 in FY2010, following economic stimulus measures enacted in FY2009. Visits to the parks also increased, with peaks of approximately 285 million in 2009 and 2014.
