[Congressional Record Volume 154, Number 52 (Thursday, April 3, 2008)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2444-S2445]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. SALAZAR (for himself, Ms. Collins, Mr. Baucus, Mr. 
        Coleman, and Mr. Tester):
  S. 2817. A bill to establish the National Park Centennial Fund, and 
for other purposes; to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
  Mr. SALAZAR. Mr. President, today I am proud to introduce the 
National Park Centennial Fund Act, a bill that will help restore the 
grandeur of our national parks in preparation for the 100th birthday of 
the National Park System in 2016. I am pleased to introduce this bill 
with Senator Collins, Senator Baucus, Senator Coleman, and Senator 
Tester. I want to thank them for their work and for their support of 
this bill, which I hope we can pass this year.
  Nearly a century ago, following the extraordinary vision of leaders 
whose dreams were ahead of their time, we as Americans pledged to 
protect our Nation's most special lands and treasures. At places like 
Yellowstone, Yosemite, Mesa Verde, and Gettysburg we have set aside for 
permanent protection those landscapes that conjure the sublime, those 
historic treasures that tell the American story, and those cultural 
sites that help define us as a people.
  In 2016, we will celebrate the 100th anniversary of the National Park 
System. The centennial celebration will be an opportunity to resurrect 
the spirit that drove people like Enos Mills, one of the founders of 
Rocky Mountain National Park, to work tirelessly to protect our 
Nation's crown jewels for future generations. ``In years to come when I 
am asleep beneath the pines,'' Mills proclaimed in 1909, ``thousands of 
families will find rest and hope in this park.'' He was right. Thanks 
to the excellent work of the Park Service and its employees over the 
past 90 years, the 3.2 million visitors that come to Rocky Mountain 
National Park each year experience the same wild lands and spectacular 
vistas that our ancestors enjoyed.
  The coming of the 2016 centennial of the National Park System is an 
opportunity to restore the luster of our national parks and inspire 
future generations to protect these national treasures.
  Secretary Kempthorne took an important step in this direction when, 
in August 2006, he announced that the National Park Service will 
undertake the Centennial Initiative to prepare for the 100th 
anniversary of the Park System in 2016. As part of the Centennial 
Initiative, Secretary Kempthorne proposed the creation of a partnership 
between: the federal government; the private, philanthropic sector; and 
other non-federal sources. The goal of this partnership would be to 
increase philanthropic contributions to the parks by providing Federal 
matching funds for donations made by Americans for projects that 
improve the parks and visitor experiences. This program is called the 
Centennial Challenge.

  When Secretary Kempthorne presented this proposal to the Senate 
Energy and Natural Resources Committee last year, I offered my strong 
support for the concept. However, the legislation offered by the 
Administration to put the Centennial Challenge into action suffered 
from a number of deficiencies--namely, a lack of a spending offset and 
an unclear delineation of the public's and Congress' role in the 
program. There were also concerns about the bill's effect on other Park 
Service accounts, friends groups, and existing philanthropic 
initiatives.
  The National Park Centennial Fund Act that we are introducing today 
answers many of these questions and, I believe, is a legislative 
package that is worthy of bipartisan support and passage.
  This bill takes Secretary Kempthorne's Centennial Challenge proposal 
from vision to reality by establishing the Centennial Challenge Fund, a 
matching donation fund in the federal treasury that will provide up to 
$100 million a year to the national parks in support of signature 
``Centennial projects and programs.'' This would allow supporters of 
the parks to match their contributions with federal dollars to carry 
out a program or a project at a national park unit, provided that the 
project or program is approved by the Park Service and Congress.
  This bill provides $100 million in mandatory spending for each of the 
fiscal years from 2008 to 2017 to carry out special, select Centennial 
projects throughout the National Park System. Non-federal philanthropic 
participation is encouraged, but not required, for a project to be 
executed with Federal money from the Centennial Fund.
  To ensure that Congress has the opportunity to review and approve the 
proposed project list, the bill requires the Secretary oflnterior to 
submit to Congress, as part of the President's annual budget 
submission, a list of proposed Centennial projects. The yearly project 
lists are to be developed by the Secretary with input from the public 
and National Park Service employees.

  Projects must meet specific criteria set forth in the bill. All 
projects must be consistent with Park Service policies and adopted park 
planning documents and be representative of the breadth of the national 
park system. The bill also requires that project proposals fall into 
one of seven categories or ``initiatives'' defined in the bill: 
Education, Diversity, Supporting Park Professionals, Environmental 
Leadership, Natural Resource Protection, Cultural Resource Protection, 
and Visitor Enjoyment and Health, and Construction. No more than 30 
percent of the amounts available in the fund in any fiscal year may be 
spent on construction activities.
  The National Park Centennial Fund Act also specifies that the Federal 
dollars made available from the Centennial Fund shall supplement and 
not replace annual Park Service expenditures, and that adequate 
permanent staffing levels must be maintained. The Secretary is required 
to submit a report to Congress each year detailing Centennial Fund 
accounting, results, and Park Service staffing levels.
  The National Park Centennial Fund Act bill proposes to pay for the 
Centennial Fund by establishing a new conservation royalty from 
unanticipated off-shore oil and gas revenues in the Gulf of Mexico that 
the Federal Government is now collecting. In 2008, off-shore oil and 
gas lease sales have already generated more than $4 billion in revenue 
above Department of Interior projections. Rather than returning all 
these revenues--which were generated from the depletion of a natural 
resource--to the Federal treasury, the National Park Centennial Fund 
Act reinvests up to $1 billion in the Centennial Fund and the permanent 
protection of our national treasures.
  Moreover, the bill supplements the funding from this conservation 
royalty with revenues that would be generated through the sale of a new 
postage stamp celebrating the 100th anniversary of the National Park 
System.
  I want to again thank my colleagues, Senator Collins, Senator Baucus, 
Senator Coleman, and Senator Tester, for their support and for their 
work on this

[[Page S2445]]

bill. This is an effort that is worthy of broad, bipartisan support, 
and it is a bill which I hope we will pass this year.
  Finally, I would like to note that I see another bill that I have 
introduced, S. 2194, as complementary to this effort. The National Park 
Ranger School Partnership Act, which I introduced with Senator Conrad, 
would provide greater opportunities for our kids to experience and 
learn from the tremendous resources in our national parks by 
establishing partnerships between NPS and local schools under the No 
Child Left Behind Act. The bill would also create a pilot grant program 
aimed at getting more school children into the national parks.
  I look forward to working with my colleagues to pass both of these 
bills.
  Ms. COLLINS. Mr. President, I am proud to join Senator Salazar in 
introducing the National Park Centennial Fund Act. This bill celebrates 
the 100th anniversary of the National Park System by infusing our parks 
with $1 billion over 10 years, which will be matched by an additional 
$1 billion in private donations. This challenge fund adds to efforts to 
increase the operations budget of the National Park Service by $1 
billion over the next decade.
  We Americans love our National Parks. In fact, in a December 2007 
Harris Interactive Poll, the National Park Service ranked as the most 
popular Federal Government service.
  In 1872, Congress designated Yellowstone as the world's first 
national park, and in 1916 the National Park Service formally was 
created to manage what had become a 6 million acre system of national 
protected areas.
  Today the National Park System protects more than 84 million acres. 
National Parks conserve our culture and our places of natural beauty 
and value. They also provide recreation opportunities for more than 270 
million visitors each year.
  My State of Maine is home to the first National Park east of the 
Mississippi River, Acadia National Park, a true gem on Maine's rocky 
coast. Visitors enjoy granite mountain tops, sparkling lakes, forested 
valleys, meadows, marshes, and a spectacular coastline. They can hike 
up Cadillac Mountain, the tallest mountain on the east coast, which 
offers amazing views of Porcupine Islands and Frenchman Bay.
  The National Park Centennial Fund Act will maintain and improve all 
of our parks for the next century of enjoyment. The bill establishes a 
mandatory annual fund of $100 million, which will be matched by private 
donations for projects in parks around the country.
  Eligible projects will be prioritized through input from both the 
public and a broad cross-section of National Park Service employees. 
Centennial challenge projects may fall into one of these categories: 
education, diversity, supporting park professionals, environmental 
leadership, natural resource protection, cultural resources protection 
or visitor enjoyment and health.
  For example, at Acadia National Park, officials are undertaking an 
environmental leadership project to make Acadia virtually car-free by 
providing a variety of public transportation options within the park. 
This partnership with the local community will include providing a 
central parking and bus boarding area for park visitors to use the 
Island Explore bus system. Since 1999, these low-emissions propane 
vehicles have carried more than 1.5 million riders. In doing so, they 
removed 424,000 vehicles from the park and reduced pollution by 24 
tons.
  We propose two offsets in the National Park Centennial Fund Act. The 
first is a postal stamp for National Parks, estimated to raise about 
$10 million annually.
  The second offset is from unanticipated revenues from offshore oil 
and gas leases. Thus far for fiscal year 2008, bids and royalties from 
offshore oil and gas leases are $4.2 billion higher than CBO 
anticipated. The National Park Centennial Fund Act bill would take 
these revenues that were not anticipated each year and dedicate them 
into the centennial fund until the total in the fund reaches $1 
billion. If we are depleting one natural resource, I believe we should 
return part of the revenues to the protection of other natural 
resources like our National Parks.
  Mr. President, I thank Senator Salazar for his leadership on this 
bill and Senators Baucus, Coleman and Tester for their support. I urge 
all my colleagues to consider joining us on this important legislation.
                                 ______