Rob Bishop: “This amendment requires the Park Service to eliminate its maintenance backlog at this particular national historic site…”

“This amendment requires the Park Service to eliminate its maintenance backlog at this particular national historic site, the Carl Sandburg site, prior to the purchasing of land. As I said already, there is a $600,000 backlog that the Park Service has said exists already at Carl Sandburg's historic site. According to the Congressional Budget Office, this bill costs $7 million to implement. Those funds must be prioritized on an 'existing needs' list, which means the Park Service has the discretion to use the $7 million to buy new land before they actually fix the existing buildings that happen to be there. Overall, the Park Service has a maintenance backlog that's anywhere from $5- to $10 billion. This is not the time to buy more land until we fix the existing problems. Any addition to this park simply exacerbates the problem. And this bill, not only in the overall cost, but also add an additional $500,000 a year on operating costs of this particular park.”