Senator Lamar Alexander on Tuesday visited Stones River National Battlefield in Rutherford County, where he said he hopes "to pass this year a plan that would begin to eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog."
He said, "I had a chance to visit today Stones River National Battlefield, one of the 417 national park sites in our country. And the story here is the same as it is in other places, like the Great Smokies and around our country -- a lot of deferred maintenance; there is about $11.6 billion overall in our country, and here it is about $5 million. Three hundred thousand of us visit here every year, and we would like to see our parking lots, buildings and roads in good shape.
That is why Interior Secretary Zinke and I -- and a bipartisan group of senators -- hope to pass this year a plan that would begin to eliminate the deferred maintenance backlog."
He toured the battlefield and met with Superintendent Brenda Pennington and park rangers who discussed the park’s deferred maintenance projects.
Senator Alexander introduced the National Park Restoration Act on March 7 with U.S. Senators Angus King (I-Maine), Steve Daines (R-Mont.), Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) Joe Manchin (D- W.Va.), Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.) and Representatives Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) and Kurt Schrader (D-Ore.). The bipartisan legislation will use revenues from energy production on federal lands to help pay for the over $11 billion maintenance backlog in the National Park System. Representatives John Garamendi (D-Calif.), Colleen Hanabusa (D-Hawaii), and Will Hurd (R-Texas) are also cosponsors of the House version of the legislation.
The National Park Restoration Act:
- Creates the National Park Restoration Fund to provide mandatory funding for the high-priority deferred maintenance needs that support critical infrastructure and visitor services at our national parks.
- Provides mandatory funding for the maintenance backlog on top of annual appropriations for operations and construction at the National Park Service.
- The fund receives 50 percent of onshore and offshore revenues from energy production on federal lands over expected amounts that are not already allocated to other purposes.
- Protects payments to states, the Land and Water Conservation Fund, the Reclamation Fund, and all other existing uses of onshore and offshore revenues. These existing uses will receive all of their funding before the National Park Restoration Fund receives any funding.