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[Congressional Bills 111th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4291 Introduced in House (IH)]

111th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 4291

 Making emergency supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2010 for 
the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and Federal Highway 
 Administration for public land rehabilitation, road projects, and job 
                               creation.

_______________________________________________________________________

                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                           December 11, 2009

  Ms. Linda T. Sanchez of California (for herself and Mr. Blumenauer) 
 introduced the following bill; which was referred to the Committee on 
 Appropriations, and in addition to the Committee on the Budget, for a 
 period to be subsequently determined by the Speaker, in each case for 
consideration of such provisions as fall within the jurisdiction of the 
                          committee concerned

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

 
 Making emergency supplemental appropriations for fiscal year 2010 for 
the National Park Service, National Forest Service, and Federal Highway 
 Administration for public land rehabilitation, road projects, and job 
                               creation.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Public Lands Rehabilitation and Job 
Creation Act''.

SEC. 2. CONGRESSIONAL FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) The National Park Service's (NPS) 67,000 park assets 
        include over 17,000 buildings, 4,000 housing units, 1,200 
        campgrounds, 3,000 water and waste water systems, 5,000 miles 
        of paved roadways, and 18,000 miles of trails; in total, these 
        facilities have a replacement value in excess of $100 billion.
            (2) The NPS's maintenance backlog can be traced to two 
        primary causes, the first being that new parks were added to 
        the National Park System with facilities that were frequently 
        in poor condition when transferred, and the second being that 
        inadequate funding and staffing over a number of years caused 
        routine maintenance to slip, slowly but steadily causing minor 
        problems to compound, leading to the need for major repairs and 
        in some cases, new construction.
            (3) Over one-half of the backlogged infrastructure repair 
        and rehabilitation projects fall under the category of roads 
        and road-related infrastructure.
            (4) To now reverse the backlog which has grown to nearly 
        $10 billion requires a concerted effort involving necessary 
        repairs and full funding of cyclic and routine maintenance 
        programs so that new problems can be treated at the earliest 
        possible stage.
            (5) Although the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 
        2009 (ARRA) provided a much needed infusion of funds to kick-
        start repairs in a number of parks, the NPS has identified 
        approximately $3.2 billion in highest priority critical system 
        deferred maintenance projects (those projects most important to 
        park operations) remaining.
            (6) Because the ARRA-funded projects have depleted the 
        number of shovel-ready projects that NPS had ready for 
        construction, the NPS recommends that any funding increase 
        should be phased in over several years in order to allow the 
        NPS to rebuild its staff and support capacity.
            (7) The NPS identifies preventive maintenance as the key to 
        slowing the growth of the maintenance backlog.
            (8) The NPS cyclic maintenance program is currently funded 
        at about $100 million a year and is designed to perform 
        preventive maintenance through roof repairs, painting, and road 
        resealing. The NPS maintenance management system indicates a 
        need to increase this fund to $350 million annually, an 
        increase of $250 million from current levels.
            (9) The NPS warns that any gains made through increased 
        cyclic maintenance efforts will be minimized unless additional 
        park operational maintenance is also increased.
            (10) At the present time, the NPS has approximately 8,000 
        permanent and seasonal maintenance employees working within its 
        391 units. Virtually every park manager asserts that their 
        current staffing level is woefully insufficient to take on 
        identified maintenance needs, and as a result, needed repairs 
        go unaddressed, ultimately adding to an ever growing backlog.
            (11) Evaluations by outside groups and individuals have 
        routinely identified a 50 to 100 percent maintenance staffing 
        shortfall in the parks they have visited. To increase 
        maintenance staffing by 50 percent would require an additional 
        operational increase of $350 million a year.
            (12) The NPS estimates that in 4 to 6 months after funding 
        is provided, it can prepare needed plans and complete most of 
        its hiring efforts for additional construction and maintenance 
        work.
            (13) With respect to National Forests, according to the 
        Wilderness Society, road removal and reclamation, rather than 
        road closings, are the best and most long-term solution to 
        addressing the negative impacts of roads on forest ecosystems. 
        With the proper training, roads and culverts can be reclaimed 
        and slopes recontoured, using the very same excavators, 
        bulldozers, and dump trucks used to build the roads in the 
        first place.
            (14) For rural communities, road removal and reclamation 
        has the potential to create high-skill, high-wage, locally 
        based jobs, to improve community water supplies, and to enrich 
        fishing and hunting opportunities. Studies in Oregon and 
        northern California have shown that roadwork requiring heavy 
        equipment tends to be more locally based than thinning and 
        planting work, where crews often come from hundreds of miles 
        away.
            (15) In the long run, the Forest Service estimates that 
        road and culvert reclamation would save taxpayers up to $1,200 
        per mile in reduced maintenance costs annually. Additionally, 
        each $1 million spent on road decommissioning will support an 
        estimated 11 direct jobs for heavy equipment operators and 3.5 
        jobs for other forest workers.
            (16) While shovel-ready projects are good for rural 
        communities, the environment, and ultimately for taxpayers, the 
        reality is that the Forest Service currently has only a limited 
        number of shovel-ready roads-related projects on which to begin 
        work. To successfully allocate funding, the Forest Service 
        needs to identify its minimum road system, design the 
        engineering on projects to remove unneeded roads, and do the 
        project level National Environmental Policy Act analysis before 
        it can break ground. Like shovel-ready projects, this necessary 
        analysis work would also create family-wage, high-skilled, 
        green jobs.

SEC. 3. EMERGENCY SUPPLEMENTAL APPROPRIATIONS.

    The following sums are appropriated, out of any money in the 
Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to provide emergency supplemental 
appropriations for fiscal year 2010:

                       DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

                         National Park Service

                 operation of the national park service

    For an additional amount for ``Operation of the National Park 
Service'' for cyclic and routine maintenance and repair of visitor use, 
cultural resource, and other park use facilities, $1,250,000,000, to 
remain available until September 30, 2014: Provided, That the amount 
under this heading is designated as an emergency requirement and 
necessary to meet emergency needs pursuant to sections 403 and 423(b) 
of S. Con. Res. 13 (111th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the 
budget for fiscal year 2010.

                              construction

    For an additional amount for ``Construction'' for major repairs and 
construction, $2,000,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 
2014: Provided, That the amount under this heading is designated as an 
emergency requirement and necessary to meet emergency needs pursuant to 
sections 403 and 423(b) of S. Con. Res. 13 (111th Congress), the 
concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010.

                       DEPARTMENT OF AGRICULTURE

                             Forest Service

                  capital improvement and maintenance

    For an additional amount for ``Capital Improvement and 
Maintenance'' for road-related projects, including road 
decommissioning, $500,000,000, to remain available until September 30, 
2014: Provided, That at least $100,000,000 of the amount appropriated 
under this heading shall be for identifying a minimum road system for 
every national forest and grassland pursuant to section 212.5(b) of 
title 36, Code of Federal Regulations, as in effect on December 10, 
2009:   Provided further, That at least $100,000,000 of the amount 
appropriated under this heading shall be for inventorying, designing, 
engineering, and executing the work to decommission unauthorized roads: 
Provided further, The activities conducted under this heading may be 
carried out through contracting with private entities: Provided 
further, That the amount under this heading is designated as an 
emergency requirement and necessary to meet emergency needs pursuant to 
sections 403 and 423(b) of S. Con. Res. 13 (111th Congress), the 
concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2010.

                      DEPARTMENT OF TRANSPORTATION

                     Federal Highway Administration

                   highway infrastructure investment

    For an additional amount for ``Highway Infrastructure Investment'' 
for the Park Roads and Parkways program for critical park road and 
transportation-related infrastructure repairs and maintenance under 
section 204 of title 23, United States Code, $1,000,000,000, to remain 
available until September 30, 2014: Provided, That the amount under 
this heading is designated as an emergency requirement and necessary to 
meet emergency needs pursuant to sections 403 and 423(b) of S. Con. 
Res. 13 (111th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for 
fiscal year 2010.
                                 <all>
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