Trump's Proposed Budget Would Devastate National Parks

To understand any budget, all you need to see are the numbers. And when you look at the Trump administration’s 2020 budget proposal for the Department of the Interior, those numbers paint a pretty clear picture.

Despite rhetoric about allocating more money for fire suppression and to address the National Park Service’s overwhelming maintenance backlog, the reality is that, if this proposal were to move forward, there would be less cash to go around for virtually every line item that isn’t directly related to oil and gas extraction.

The good news? The President doesn’t set the federal government’s budget; Congress does. And, according to House Natural Resources Committee Chair Raúl Grijalva, “This isn’t worth the paper it’s printed on, it’s dead on arrival in Congress, and printing it was a waste of time.”

But, as an indication of the Trump administration’s priorities, the balance sheets in this budget are about as truthful as it gets. The administration is committed to slashing funding for our national parks and public lands. Let’s cut through the bullshit.



The Rhetoric: “One of Interior’s highest priorities remains to address the deferred maintenance backlog on Federal lands," reads the proposed budget. "At the end of 2018, Interior’s backlog was over $16.0 billion, about three quarters of which is in the National Park Service’s (NPS) crumbling roads, bridges, water systems, and facilities.”

The Reality: The total NPS budget would be cut by $494,946,000. This includes cuts to the operations budget of $52 million, a $31-million cut to the National Recreation and Preservation fund, a $64-million cut to the Historic Preservation Fund, a $113-million cut for the construction and major maintenance budget, and a $176-million cut for land acquisition and state assistance programs.

https://www.outsideonline.com/2391927/trump-budget-cuts-2020-national-parks?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=WYM-03132019&utm_content=WYM-03132019+CID_dd3874efe338a46da5ac51ab7153d1bf&utm_source=campaignmonitor%20outsidemagazine&utm_term=reveals%20massive%20funding%20cuts%20for%20everything%20public-lands%20related