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Senator tells Energy and Natural Resources Committee that Interior budget, vacancies are crippling park services
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Summary
A senator told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the Department of the Interior's budget request and leadership vacancies are leaving parks short-staffed, delaying energy projects and cutting visitor services, citing vacant superintendent and regional director posts and a proposed 30% cut to operations programs.
A senator told the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee that the Department of the Interior’s proposed budget and vacant senior positions are leaving national parks and other public lands understaffed and with reduced services.
“In parks are cutting hours and services for visitors. Ranger tours are canceled. Toilets are overflowing and trash cans sit on empty. Permits are languishing on empty desks,” the senator said, summarizing a series of operational problems he blamed on staffing shortages and funding levels.
The senator said leadership and staff shortages extend across Interior agencies. “The senior leadership positions at the department are mostly vacant. Roughly 100 park superintendent positions are vacant. 5 of the 7 regional director positions for the National Park Service sit empty,” he said. He added similar concerns at the Bureau of Land Management, saying that “a of senior leadership positions are vacant, including both deputy director positions and the director position itself.”
The senator also cited seasonal hiring shortfalls for the National Park Service, saying the agency promised to hire 7,700 seasonal employees for the summer but had “managed, at least according to public reports, to hire only half of that.” He framed the shortfall as a near-term operational problem for holiday weekends and summer visitation.
On the administration’s budget proposal, the senator said the Department of the Interior operations request “includes a 30% cut across programs,” and warned that “this would cripple the department as we know it.” He addressed the department’s secretary directly in the hearing, saying he had expected the secretary to be “a responsible steward of our public lands.”
No formal action or vote related to the budget was recorded in the provided transcript excerpt. The senator characterized the president’s budget request as likely to face resistance on Capitol Hill, saying, “It is often said of president's budget request that they're dead on arrival on Capitol Hill. And for the sake of the shared landscapes that we hold and trust for our grandchildren. I hope that's the case for this budget.”
The remarks comprised an extended critique of staffing, leadership vacancies and the proposed budget; the transcript excerpt does not record responses from the secretary or committee votes on the budget request.
