Mark Souder: “there are many important parts of this bill, but I want to speak briefly to the House about our love for the national…”

“there are many important parts of this bill, but I want to speak briefly to the House about our love for the national parks. We have about a $600 million backlog, and it is overwhelming to try to address this in an appropriation bill where money is so tight. We have a bill called the National Parks Centennial Act that tries to address this. Senators McCain, Feinstein, and Alexander are leading the fight in the Senate and the gentleman from Washington (Mr. Baird), myself, as well as key appropriators such as the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Wolf), the gentleman from Ohio (Mr. Regula), the gentleman from Illinois (Mr. LaHood), and others here in the House. But what is before us today is actually very important, because even in a time of tight budgets the Committee on Appropriations has seen fit to raise the President's request on national parks by $70 million over last year's funding, and $20 million above the President's approval. At a time when we are fighting on so many different fronts to figure out how to balance our budget and move towards a balanced budget, where every trade-off between immunizations and Medicaid and whether we support our troops and veterans benefits and all this, it is important to remember the legacy of America's national parks, America's gifts to the world, and I appreciate it very much in this overall important bill that they have increased the funding for the national parks.”