The Park Service is the caretaker of many of the nation’s most precious natural and cultural resources. Today, more than 130 years after the first national park was created, the National Park System has grown to include 390 units covering over 84 million acres in 49 states, the District of Columbia, American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Saipan, and the Virgin Islands. The Park Service manages its responsibilities through headquarters, seven regional offices, and its individual park units. These units include a diverse mix of sites—now in more than 20 different categories. These include (1) national parks, such as Yellowstone in Idaho, Montana, and Wyoming; Yosemite in California; and Grand Canyon in Arizona; (2) national historical parks, such as Harper’s Ferry in Maryland, Virginia, and West Virginia; and Valley Forge in Pennsylvania; (3) national battlefields, such as Antietam in Maryland; (4) national historic sites such as Ford’s Theatre in Washington, D.C.; and Carl Sandburg’s home in North Carolina; (5) national monuments, such as Fort Sumter in South Carolina; and the Statue of Liberty in New York and New Jersey; (6) national preserves, such as Yukon-Charley Rivers in Alaska; and (7) national recreation areas, such as Lake Mead in Arizona and Nevada. Some of these park units, such as Yellowstone, cover millions of acres and employ hundreds of employees. Other units, such as Ford’s Theatre which encompasses two historic structures, are small and have few employees. The Park Service’s mission is to preserve unimpaired the natural and cultural resources of the National Park System for the enjoyment of this and future generations. Its objectives include providing for the use of the park units by supplying appropriate visitor services and infrastructure (e.g., roads and facilities) to support these services. In addition, the Park Service protects its natural and cultural resources (e.g., preserving wildlife habitat and Native American sites) so that they will be unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations. Due to the complexity of its mission, large land area, and the number and diversity of its park units, the Park Service faces many challenges—including a deteriorating infrastructure (due in part to an estimated $5 billion maintenance backlog), threats to preserving natural and cultural resources, and challenges to maintaining visitor services. Moreover, despite fiscal constraints facing all federal agencies, the number of park units continues to expand—12 units, mostly small units, have been authorized since fiscal year 2001. The Park Service receives its main source of funds to operate park units through appropriations from the ONPS account. The Park Service chooses to allocate funds to its park units in two categories—allocations for daily operations, and allocations for specific, non-recurring projects. Daily operations allocation levels for individual park units are built on park units’ allocation level for the prior year. Park units receive an increased allocation for required pay increases and request specific increases for new or higher levels of ongoing operating responsibilities, such as adding additional law enforcement rangers for increased homeland security protection. Park Service headquarters takes the initiative in requesting the funding for all required employee pay increases on a service wide basis. However, for park-specific increases, once funding is appropriated, park units compete against one another through their regional office and headquarters for the available funds. As is true for other government operations, the cost of operating park units will increase each year due to required pay increases, the rising costs of benefits for federal employees, and rising overhead expenses such as utilities. The Park Service may provide additional allocations for daily operations to cover all or part of these cost increases. If the continuation of operations at the previous year’s level would require more funds than are available, park units must adjust either by identifying efficiencies within the park unit, use other authorized funding sources such as fees or donations to fund the activity, or reduce services. Upon receiving their allocations for daily operations each year, park unit managers exercise a great deal of discretion in setting operational priorities. Typically, these decisions involve trade-offs among four categories of spending: (1) visitor services (e.g., opening a campground or adding law enforcement staff), (2) resource management (e.g., monitoring the condition of threatened species or water quality), (3) maintenance needs (e.g., repairing a trail), and (4) park administration and support (e.g., updating computer systems or attending training). Generally, about 80 percent of each park unit’s allocation for daily operations is used to pay the salaries and benefits of permanent employees (personnel costs). Park units use the remainder of their allocations for daily operations for overhead expenses such as utilities, supplies, and training, among other things. In addition to daily operations funding, the Park Service also allocates project-related funding to park units for specific purposes to support its mission. For example, activities completed with Cyclic Maintenance and Repair and Rehabilitation funds include re-roofing or re-painting buildings, overhauling engines, refinishing hardwood floors, replacing sewer lines, repairing building foundations, and rehabilitating campgrounds and trails. Park units compete for project allocations by submitting requests to their respective regional office and headquarters. Regional and headquarters officials determine which projects to fund. While an individual park unit may receive funding for several projects in one year, it may receive none the next. Park units may also receive revenue from outside sources such as visitor fees and donations—although there are often limitations on how these revenues may be used. Since 1996, the Congress has provided the park units with authority to collect fees from visitors and retain these funds for use on projects to enhance recreation and visitor enjoyment, among other things. Since 2002, the Park Service has required park units to spend the majority of their visitor fees on deferred maintenance projects, such as road or building repair. The Park Service also receives revenue from concessionaires under contract to perform services at park units—such as operating a lodge—and cash or non-monetary donations from non-profit organizations or individuals, among others. For example, as we reported in July 2003, about 200 cooperating associations and “friends groups” helped support 347 park units, contributing over $200 million from 1997 to 2001. These funds may vary from year to year and, in the case of donations, may be accompanied by stipulations on how the funds may be used. Figure 1 illustrates the principal funding sources used by park units to perform operations. Total appropriations for the ONPS account increased overall in both nominal and inflation-adjusted dollars from fiscal year 2001 through 2005. However, the agency allocated funds such that, in inflation-adjusted terms, the total allocation for daily operations from these appropriations fell slightly overall, while the total allocation for projects increased overall. About 56 percent of the individual park units and about 74 percent of the more highly visited parks experienced an overall decline in their allocation for daily operations when adjusted for inflation during this period. The agency allocated funding for projects at a higher rate than for daily operations. As shown in figure 2, overall appropriations for the ONPS account— including the amounts the Park Service allocated for daily operations and projects—rose in both nominal and inflation-adjusted dollars overall from fiscal years 2001 through 2005. Nominal dollars increased from about $1.4 billion in fiscal year 2001 to almost $1.7 billion in fiscal year 2005, an average annual increase of about 4.9 percent (i.e., about $68 million per year). After adjusting these amounts for inflation, the average annual increase was about 1.3 percent or almost $18 million per year. By contrast, the Park Service’s overall budget authority increased to about $2.7 billion in 2005 from about $2.6 billion in 2001, an average increase of about 1 percent per year. In inflation adjusted dollars, the total budget authority fell by an average of about 2.5 percent per year. With the increases in appropriations for the ONPS account, the Park Service increased allocations for projects and other support programs such as the Repair and Rehabilitation, Cyclic Maintenance, and Inventory and Monitoring programs, among others. The overall allocation for daily operations, on the other hand, declined slightly on average when adjusted for inflation. The Park Service’s total allocation for daily operations for park units increased overall in nominal dollars but the total allocation fell slightly when adjusted for inflation from fiscal years 2001 through 2005. As illustrated in figure 3, overall allocations for daily operations for park units rose from about $903 million in fiscal year 2001 to almost $1.03 billion in fiscal year 2005—an average annual increase of about $30 million, or about 3 percent. After adjusting for inflation, the allocation for daily operations fell slightly from about $903 million in 2001 to about $893 million in 2005— an average annual decline of about $2.5 million, or 0.3 percent. The fiscal year 2005 appropriation for the ONPS account included an additional $37.5 million over the amounts proposed by the House and Senate for the ONPS account, to be used for daily operations. The conference report accompanying the appropriation stated that the additional amount was to be used for (1) a service-wide increase of $25 million and (2) $12.5 million for visitor services programs at specific park units. Of the 380 park units that received funding for daily operations for the entire period of our review, 212 (or about 56 percent), saw an average annual decline in inflation-adjusted terms of about 2 percent. The declines ranged from less than 0.1 percent at the Mary McLeod Bethune Council House National Historic Site to about 5.2 percent at Petroglyph National Monument. The remaining 168 park units’ daily operations funding trends were either flat or increasing from 2001 through 2005, with the largest increase being about 39 percent at Rosie the Riveter/WWII Home Front National Historic Park.