Alan Simpson: “First, let me thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania and the gentleman from New York for their amendment. I'm sympathetic…”

“First, let me thank the gentleman from Pennsylvania and the gentleman from New York for their amendment. I'm sympathetic to what they're trying to do and the work that they do in the National Heritage Caucus, and it's important work. But I rise in reluctant opposition to the amendment. While I'm sympathetic to the intent of the amendment and the increased funding for the National Heritage Areas, I'm concerned that the offset would take funds away from the account providing funds for operations of our national parks across the country. One of our goals in this bill was to provide sufficient funding for park operations so that every Park Service unit in the country would be open for business next year, without the threat of layoffs or furloughs for full-time or seasonal employees. My fear is that reducing this account by $8.8 million would undermine the operation of our national parks. Let me also point out that, while the amount in the bill is reduced from the fiscal year 2011 enacted level, the National Heritage Areas are funded in the bill at the amount requested by the President's budget. These National Heritage Areas are supposed to become self- sufficient, and the problem is we're going to see that when that doesn't happen, the funding request from the President is going to not be in their budget and, consequently, there's not going to be any money for these National Heritage Areas requested by the administration. We funded this at the President's level.…”