06.24.19

Chair Grijalva Pushes Interior Secretary to Explain Use of Public Lands Recreation Money as “Slush Fund” for Unauthorized Expenses, Questions Legality

Washington, D.C. – Chair Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) wrote today to Interior Secretary David Bernhardt seeking an explanation for Bernhardt’s use of money raised through the Federal Lands Recreation Enhancement Act (FLREA) to pay for day-to-day operations at the National Park Service. Bernhardt’s decision to use FLREA as a “slush fund,” Grijalva writes, not only ignores Congress’ sole power to appropriate funds to federal agencies but contradicts FLREA, a law designed to enhance visitor experiences by funding specific projects – not by supplementing agencies’ general operating budgets.

The letter is available at http://bit.ly/2X0Qb6g. As Grijalva writes: 

The Department’s policy on this matter is not a modest reinterpretation of the law, but rather shameless groundwork for helping the President save face next time he decides to shut down the federal government. The National Park Service must continue to get its primary, day-to-day funding, including money for personnel, from the annual appropriations process – not from FLREA recreation fees.

The letter comes just a day before the five-month anniversary of the end of the most recent government shutdown, which stretched from Dec. 22, 2018, to Jan. 25, 2019 – the longest government shutdown in history. The Congressional Budget Office estimates the shutdown – which began when Congress declined to follow President Trump’s unrealistic demands for $5.7 billion in funds to build a border wall – cost the U.S. economy at least $11 billion. 

During that shutdown, the Department of the Interior was without funding and sent thousands of furloughed employees home across the country. The damage to national parks and other public lands during the shutdown, mostly due to unauthorized entries and property damage, was widely covered at the time. 

Secretary Bernhardt’s attempts to use FLREA funds to paper over National Park Service funding shortfalls during the shutdown were widely criticized. The law requires a notice to be publicly posted whenever FLREA fee money is being used to fund a specific enhancement project (which Interior did do not during the shutdown) and for a Federal Register notification to be published six months in advance of any fee modifications. 

Grijalva’s letter today asks for a written explanation of how DOI intends to follow those mandates should Bernhardt continue to use FLREA funds to pay basic operating expenses, such as staff salaries, for which they were never intended.

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