Hill Heat

Hearing page

Witnesses:

• Jessica Bowron, Comptroller, National Park Service
• Charles “Chuck” F. Sams III, Director, National Park Service

The discretionary budget request for the NPS is $3.6 billion, an increase of $345.6 million compared to FY 2022 enacted funding levels. This level supports an estimated 16,412 direct full-time equivalents (FTE). Recreation fee revenue and other mandatory funding sources provide additional funding of $1.1 billion. The total FY 2023 request for NPS is $4.8 billion and 20,495 FTE from all funding sources. The NPS FY 2023 request prioritizes advancing racial equity and support for underserved stories and communities, tackling the climate crisis in the national park system, conserving our natural resources, and using science to inform decisions.

The FY 2023 operations budget includes a $178.8 million increase to support science, build NPS resiliency to climate change, and increase conservation efforts.

The FY 2023 budget request includes amounts to support several partnership programs. In FY 2023, the NPS plans to complement existing youth partnership programs by directing an additional $31.0 million to implement the Civilian Climate Corps (CCC).

The NPS also requests an additional $22.5 million to increase support of conservation partnership efforts through Research Learning Centers and Cooperative Ecosystem Studies Units. The work of the NPS Inventory and Monitoring Program, for which the budget requests an increase of $16.0 million, provides vital resource data to park managers and research partners. Finally, the budget includes a $2.0 million increase to establish a permanent NPS Incident Management Team that will plan for and respond to emergencies including natural disasters, which have increased in severity and frequency due to the effects of climate change. To improve NPS climate adaptation and resilience efforts, the budget includes increases totaling $45.8 million for the Construction account. This includes a $10.0 million increase for abandoned mineral lands projects—supporting the President’s commitment to create jobs in some of the hardest hit communities in the Nation—while mitigating hazards, improving water quality, and restoring natural resources to their original condition. It also includes a $7.0 million increase for unscheduled projects that address damage from emergencies, critical system failures, and extreme environmental conditions as a result of increased threats from climate change. The proposal includes an additional $12.1 million for management planning related to climate change, including climate vulnerability assessments and compliance pursuant to the National Environmental Policy Act. Also, as part of the conservation initiative, and in support of the President’s goal of transitioning to a fully Zero Emission Vehicle (ZEV) Federal fleet, the NPS budget includes an increase of $16.7 million to acquire ZEVs and to deploy vehicle charging and refueling infrastructure. The Department of the Interior is coordinating all of these efforts to meet or exceed the ZEV-related goals set forth in the comprehensive plan developed pursuant to E.O. 14008, Section 205(a). This investment will be complemented by Department of Energy funding to provide technical assistance to agencies through the Federal Energy Management Program as the NPS builds and grows its ZEV infrastructure.