The elected representatives of the city and county whose people pay the taxes and whose livelihoods and quality of life depend upon these projects?

St. George will be used as a cautionary tale that Ronald Reagan was right.

If you are a private citizen and you have an accident with a backhoe, you go to jail for spilling 1,500 gallons.

Again, you have said that you do not have the authority to prosecute for negligence; yet your EPA vigorously prosecutes private citizens for negligence.

The fact is this report failed to hold anyone accountable for the disaster.

Here is the double standard. If you are a private citizen and you have an accident with a backhoe, you go to jail for spilling 1,500 gallons.

Well, my experience is a lot of the retailers at the gateway communities know as much or more about the parks than the park rangers themselves.

Yet, as we approach the Centennial, the Park Service faces considerable challenges to achieving the goals sets forth in the Organic Act, chief among them being the massive 11.5 billion dollar deferred maintenance backlog.

We also greatly appreciate Ranking Member Grijalva's leadership in previously introducing the National Park Service Centennial Act.

This draft is a strong step for the NPS, its thousands of visitors, and partners like Corps that improve our parks.

Sec. 402 will allow us to significantly improve our Corps, and our work for NPS and the nation.

This year-long celebration of our National Parks affords us a unique opportunity to reflect on the past, assess the present, and make adjustments for the future.