David Thomas: “recently ABC ran a series of stories about the National Park Service and discussed the $4.9 billion backlog of deferred…”

“recently ABC ran a series of stories about the National Park Service and discussed the $4.9 billion backlog of deferred maintenance nationwide in our National Park System. One segment mentioned that some operations and park programs may need to be curtailed or discontinued as a result of budget shortfalls at Yellowstone National Park. To be absolutely fair, over the past few years both Senator Byrd and Senator Burns have been very generous to the National Park Service and to Yellowstone in particular. Yellowstone is the world's first national park, created in 1872, and one of the biggest. It stretches across volcanic plateaus in northwest Wyoming and into southern Montana and Idaho, and contains more than 2 million acres of geysers, lakes, waterfalls, forests, bison, bears, and tourists. But more than that, Yellowstone is very rich in cultural, historical and natural resources, and in fact, represents--in one part--the multiple facets of park operations and programs found in the individual 285 units of the System. My amendment would use Yellowstone as a demonstration project for business transformation. The National Park Service depends upon several sources of revenue to sustain operations and modernize facilities, including but not limited to, appropriations, fee income and revenue from concessioners, lease holders and permittees.”