**STATEMENT OF MARY A. BOMAR, DIRECTOR, NATIONAL PARK SERVICE,
DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, BEFORE THE SUBCOMMITTEE ON NATIONAL PARKS OF
THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON ENERGY AND NATURAL RESOURCES, CONCERNING S.
1253, TO ESTABLISH A FUND FOR THE NATIONAL PARK CENTENNIAL CHALLENGE**

**August 2, 2007**

Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today
to present the Department of the Interior's views on S. 1253, a bill to
establish a fund for the National Park Centennial Challenge, and for
other purposes.

The Department strongly supports enactment of S. 1253. As the committee
is aware, this bill---an Administration legislative proposal---is one of
Secretary Kempthorne's top priorities. We are grateful to you, Mr.
Chairman, and to Senator Bingaman for sponsoring this legislation, and
we look forward to continuing to work with you as S. 1253 moves through
the legislative process. Secretary Kempthorne and I are very excited
about partnering with the American people on innovative projects and
programs that will capture the imagination of the public and that will
welcome and inspire the generations who will inherit the great national
treasures under our stewardship.

S. 1253, along with other components of the Centennial Initiative,
offers the greatest prospects for fulfilling what I believe are the
three most important goals for the National Park Service:

-   Re-engaging the support of the American people for the National
    Parks and rejuvenating their pride in "the best idea America ever
    had," in the famous words of a British diplomat;

-   Increasing the capacity of the National Park System, through
    increased funding, to meet the needs of a changing population; and

-   Recruiting, retaining, training, and preparing a new generation of
    leadership for the National Park Service.

The Centennial Initiative would not only provide vital funding for the
national parks, but also provide more avenues for Americans to become
involved in their national parks and the legacy they represent. National
parks are special places that unite us all as Americans, and it is our
shared responsibility to preserve them for generations yet to come. The
Centennial Initiative is a true reflection of that sentiment.

In preparing for the National Park Service's second century of
stewardship, it is worth noting the growth and change that has occurred
since the National Park Service was first established. In 1916, the
Department of the Interior oversaw 14 national parks, 21 national
monuments, and two land reservations---all of which had been set aside
for conservation purposes during the 19^th^ and early 20^th^ centuries.
However, these areas were not managed in a systematic way, nor was their
preservation assured, until Congress passed the National Park Service
Organic Act, which not only established a new agency responsible for
these units, but also directed the National Park Service to "conserve
the scenery and the natural and historic objects and the wild life
therein and to provide for the enjoyment of the same in such manner and
by such means as will leave them unimpaired for the enjoyment of future
generations."

While the fundamental mission of the National Park Service has remained
the same for 90 years, our responsibilities have grown in size and
breadth. Several new parks and monuments were added in the 1920's,
including parks in the East, and in 1933, a major governmental
reorganization transferred responsibility for 44 historical areas to the
National Park Service. Two Executive Orders in 1933 clarified that the
National Park Service has a responsibility to care for historical as
well as natural areas, making the National Park System truly national in
scope. Two years later, Congress confirmed the National Park Service's
role as the leading Federal agency in this field with passage of the
1935 Historic Sites Act that led to the National Register of Historic
Places and National Historic Landmark designations.

The 1950's, 1960's, and 1970's saw the expansion of the National Park
System to include national recreation areas, including those in large
urban areas. Fifty-two historical areas were added between 1952 and
1972. During the 1950's, the National Park Service launched "Mission
66," a ten-year effort to upgrade park facilities as the National Park
Service approached its 50^th^ anniversary in 1966. In 1980, the
establishment of large expanses of land in Alaska as national park areas
doubled the acreage under the management of the National Park Service.
Along with continued growth, the conservation mission of the National
Park Service was reaffirmed and strengthened in the 1970 General
Authorities Act, which formally recognized all the lands administered by
the National Park Service, regardless of their title, as part of one
National Park System.

During the 1980's and 1990's, Congress added more units, mostly historic
sites, including many that reflect the diversity of our nation, such as
Manzanar National Historic Site, where Japanese Americans were held
during World War II and Brown v. Board of Education National Historic
Site, commemorating the Supreme Court decision on school segregation.
Many sites across the country expanded interpretive services to appeal
to diverse demographic groups and some began providing bilingual
exhibits and information. Parks were made more accessible to the
disabled. National Park Service programs that assist or advise
communities, such as Rivers and Trails and National Heritage Areas,
added more responsibilities.

Today, the responsibilities of the National Park Service include
administering 391 park units along with multiple programs across a broad
spectrum that help conserve our nation's natural, cultural, and
historical resources. The Service has more than 22,000 employees and an
FY 2007 budget of \$2.3 billion. Since 2000, our emphasis has been on
taking better care of the resources under our stewardship, which has
included a major effort to reduce the backlog of deferred maintenance in
our parks as well as to complete documentation and enhance management of
natural resources under the umbrella of the Natural Resource Challenge.
We have stressed developing partnerships to facilitate conservation,
that includes the initiation of the Preserve America program. The
boldest and most comprehensive initiative of this era, however, is the
one that is the subject of today's hearing.

The legislative proposal before you was developed following the
Presidential directive that was announced on August 25, 2006, the 90^th^
anniversary of the National Park Service. President Bush issued a
memorandum directing Secretary Kempthorne to "enhance our national parks
during the decade leading up to the 2016 centennial
celebration...\[and\] prepare them for another century of conservation,
preservation and enjoyment." From that bold directive, the Department
developed the multi-year Centennial Initiative, which was presented in
February as part of the President's FY 2008 Budget.

The Centennial Initiative proposes \$3 billion in new funds for the
National Park Service over the next ten years. Of that amount, \$1
billion is the "Centennial Commitment"---\$100 million in additional
annual appropriations for each of the next ten years. The other \$2
billion would come from the "Centennial Challenge"---the challenge to
individuals, foundations, and businesses to contribute at least \$100
million annually to support signature programs and projects. Each year,
\$100 million in donations would be matched by \$100 million of Federal
funding from the National Park Centennial Challenge Fund, the mandatory
spending fund that would be established under S. 1253.

We greatly appreciate the support Congress has already shown for the
Centennial Commitment portion of the Initiative. Both the House-passed
and the Senate committee-approved versions of the FY 2008 Interior
appropriations bill contain the \$100 million in additional operations
funding identified in the President's Budget as Centennial Initiative
funding. Including the centennial funding, total operations funding for
FY 2008 would increase by \$199 million under the House-passed version
over the FY 2007 level, and by \$196 million under the Senate
committee-reported version. Enactment of operations funding in that
range would mean that all parks would receive enough funding to cover
fixed costs in FY 2008, and many would also receive more seasonal
rangers, more maintenance funding, and more resource protection funding,
all of which would better enable parks to provide visitors with safe,
enjoyable, and educational experiences.

The President asked for a report on implementation of his August 24,
2006 directive by May 31, 2007. To begin the process of determining
signature programs and projects, Secretary Kempthorne led the Department
and the National Park Service in an unprecedented effort to reach out to
the American public to listen to their ideas for future goals for the
national parks as we move toward the 100^th^ anniversary. During March
and April, after planning 12 listening sessions, we expanded to more
than 40 sessions throughout the nation after the initial sessions
generated such excitement among the American people as well as National
Park Service staff. Some of them were led by the Secretary and me
personally. We also took comments through our website and by mail; in
total, we heard from more than 4,500 people. From these sessions, and
from further discussion among park managers and staff, five overarching
goals emerged. They are articulated in the Secretary's May 31 report,
*The Future of America's National Parks,* as follows:

-   ***Stewardship***: The National Park Service will lead America and
    the world in preserving and restoring treasured resources;

-   ***Environmental Leadership***: The National Park Service will
    demonstrate environmental leadership to the nation;

-   ***Recreational Experience***: National parks will be superior
    recreational destinations where visitors have fun, explore nature
    and history, find inspiration, and improve health and wellness;

-   ***Education***: The National Park Service will foster exceptional
    learning opportunities that connect people to parks; and

-   ***Professional Excellence***: The National Park Service will
    demonstrate management excellence worthy of the treasures entrusted
    to our care.

The report established these goals not only as the foundation for
decisions about specific projects and programs, but also to guide the
work of the National Park Service as we work toward our centennial in
2016. The report also identified specific performance goals within each
overarching goal, and gave examples of actions that would fulfill those
goals.

Our efforts at the present time are focused on two fronts: first, each
park superintendent and program manager has been asked to complete an
implementation strategy this summer that describes their vision and
desired accomplishments for their individual areas to support the five
overarching goals. Second, parks and their enthusiastic partners are
working together to propose centennial projects and programs for 2008
and 2009. The projects and programs proposed for 2008 are being
evaluated in terms of the criteria that were finalized in June. At the
Secretary\'s request, the Inspector General is engaged in conducting
critical point evaluations of how we intend to implement the Centennial
Challenge. In particular, he has highlighted the issues of transparency
in the project and program selection process and financial
accountability.

Secretary Kempthorne and I plan to report on the individual park and
program centennial implementation strategies, and announce centennial
projects and programs approved for funding consideration for 2008 at the
end of August.

The criteria adopted in June require that all proposed projects and
programs:

-   provide for authorized activities in existing units;

-   contribute toward at least one of the five centennial goals;

-   be consistent with our management policies and planning and
    compliance documents;

-   require little or no additional National Park Service operating
    funds to be sustainable; and

-   have partners willing to contribute at least 50 percent of the
    project cost in cash from non-Federal sources.

Beyond those basic requirements, projects and programs are being
evaluated by National Park Service interdisciplinary review teams.
Projects approved for 2008 will be analyzed to ensure that the programs
and projects represent a mix of different emphasis areas---the five
centennial goals, different-sized parks, different-sized projects,
multiple park projects, national initiatives, and a mix of projects and
programs. We have been very clear in our quest for a diversity of
centennial undertakings; this is by no means strictly about "bricks and
mortar" construction projects. There will be opportunities to consider
more bold and innovative projects and programs in future years, as parks
and their partners rise to the challenge. Over time, the list will be
updated to add new projects and programs and remove completed ones. We
look forward to working with you to identify such projects and programs.

S. 1253 would assure the funding that is needed to pay for projects and
programs, once they have been selected. This legislation would establish
a U.S. Treasury fund known as the National Park Centennial Challenge
Fund. It would encourage private donations for signature projects and
programs in national parks by matching those donations with Federal
funds of up to \$100 million from FY 2008 through FY 2017. The Fund
would be available to the Secretary without further appropriation and
with no fiscal year limitations. The increase in mandatory spending
could be offset by other mandatory savings proposals within the
President's Budget, although the Administration's proposal did not
include specific offsets.

Soliciting for Challenge Fund donations would be done primarily through
the National Park Foundation and local friends' groups. The legislation
specifies that National Park Service employees would be subject to
current rules about soliciting and receiving donations.

The Centennial Challenge Fund would build on a long tradition of
philanthropy in our national parks---from donations of land by the
Rockefeller family to the coins given by school children to help restore
the Statue of Liberty. The challenge component was first developed in
collaboration with philanthropic, non-profit and private groups. In the
outreach we conducted this past spring, we found broad public support
for the idea of financing projects through a public-private match, and
we found the "challenge" approach to fundraising to be a familiar
concept. The possibility of matching funds has excited our partners and
enticed new donors, and we have every indication that we will readily
raise more than \$100 million a year necessary for a \$100 million
annual Federal match.

As Secretary Kempthorne said in his report to the President, "the golden
years for the national parks have not passed, but are ahead." Mr.
Chairman, we again thank you for your leadership on this legislation. We
stand ready to work with you to ensure that this legislation is approved
by Congress in a timely way, to help ensure that our national parks--our
national treasures--are in top condition when we begin our second
century of stewardship in 2016.

Mr. Chairman, that concludes my statement. I would be pleased to answer
any questions you or other members of the subcommittee may have.