Political Quotes

“I rise today because our national parks have been neglected for far too long. Due to years of chronic underfunding, the Park Service has been forced to defer maintenance on thousands of assets, including trails, buildings, and historic structures, as well as thousands of miles of roads and bridges. Today, the National Park Service faces a deferred maintenance backlog of nearly $12 billion. Incredibly, more than half of all Park Service assets are in dire need of repairs. Every member of this body has a national park in their State with a maintenance backlog of over a million dollars. I will give you a few examples from my home State of Virginia. At Richmond National Battlefield, the deferred maintenance backlog tops $6.5 million. At Petersburg Battlefield, one of our most historic national battlefields, the backlog is nearly $12 million, with well over half of these costs associated with the maintenance of historic buildings and landscapes. Look at Shenandoah National Park, which is truly one of the crown jewels of the National Park Service. Unfortunately, Shenandoah has accumulated over $79 million in deferred maintenance, which can impact the ability of visitors to take in the breathtaking sights along Skyline Drive or explore the historic Appalachian Trail. The Blue Ridge Parkway, ``America's Favorite Drive,'' has over $460 million in deferred maintenance needs. That is almost $1 million per mile of the parkway.…”