Today, House Committee on Natural Resources Ranking Member Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) and the committee's five subcommittee ranking members sent a letter to U.S. Department of the Interior Secretary Deb Haaland and U.S. Department of Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, demanding answers to an unanswered May 2022 letter inquiring how the departments are implementing the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA). In part, the members wrote:
"Both the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Department of Agriculture (USDA) failed to respond to our May 17, 2022, letter, regarding the administration of the National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (Legacy Restoration Fund). We find disconcerting the lack of responsiveness involving your departments' stewardship of the $9.5 billion of taxpayer money for this important Fund. The National Park Service's (NPS) and U.S. Forest Service's (USFS) updated deferred maintenance backlog statistics heighten our concerns about DOI's and USDA's management of these funds. Therefore, we urge you to provide details about the decision-making processes employed to address the maintenance backlog within your departments."
Background
GAOA allocates $1.3 billion annually toward addressing deferred maintenance projects at our national parks, yet the FY 2022 numbers disclosed by by the National Park Service show a nearly $10billion increase in the maintenance backlog in just four years. GAOA also provides $600 million to address deferred maintenance at other land agencies, which have failed to publish updated deferred maintenance statistics.
On May 17, 2022, Westerman led a letter to Haaland and Vilsack, requesting answers to how their departments are implementing the Great American Outdoors Act. This initial inquiry remains unanswered.
