December 19, 2025
Dear Chairs Collins, Murkowski, Cole and Simpson, Vice Chair Murray, and Ranking Members Merkley, DeLauro and Pingree,
We, the members of the National Parks Second Century Action Coalition1The National Parks Second Century Action Coalition is made up of organizations supporting conservation, recreation, outdoor industry, travel and tourism and historic preservation that are dedicated to promoting the protection, restoration, and enjoyment of the National Park System for the long-term benefit it offers our nation., urge you to support our national parks and national park staff as you conference the Fiscal Year 2026 (FY26) Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill. For months, NPS has been ravaged by resignation programs resulting in a tremendous loss of institutional knowledge, suffered from a hiring freeze for mission critical positions, had seasonal staff offers eliminated then reinstated well below promised levels, delayed grant funding, and had their ability to buy necessary products such as toilet paper for visitor restrooms revoked. Therefore, the Coalition supports the following requests for a conference bill:
Funding levels: Support the Senate Bill Funding Levels and Avoid Other Cuts
For more than a century, our national parks have remained America’s favorite places, important pieces of our natural and cultural heritage designated for future generations to explore and enjoy. Unfortunately, NPS has long been underfunded. Between 2011 and 2024, NPS lost over 2,000 permanent staff with an additional 4,000 lost since January. Visitor centers are reducing hours, trails and facilities are falling into disrepair, education programs are being cancelled and our nation’s natural and cultural heritage are at risk. We support the Senate bill acknowledges these impacts and largely maintains current funding at $2.859 billion for staffing, operations and public access throughout the National Park System. Unfortunately, the House bill cuts more than $176 million from the operations account. We are disappointed to see cuts in other NPS accounts, including construction, and hope the conference committee can avoid them.
Reduction In Force (RIF): Extend CR/minibus Provision Prohibiting RIF & Restore Staff
Unfortunately, NPS has lost over 24% of its permanent staff since January reducing the agency’s ability to care for our nation’s most iconic places. Our parks’ natural and cultural heritage are already significantly at risk and the visiting experience and local economies that rely on visitors could be impacted. We commend Sec. 120 in the FY26 Continuing Appropriations, Agriculture, Leg. Branch, MCVA and Extensions Act (HR 5371), which prohibits RIFs through January 30th. We urge you to add a provision in conference extending this critically needed prohibition through the rest of the fiscal year. In addition, we request statutory language to restore permanent staff to at least 16,655, the amount of permanent staff in December 2025.
Senate Policy Provisions: Include Senate Bill’s Provisions Supporting NPS
The administrative provision on page 23 of the bill requires that NPS “shall maintain staffing levels by hiring, retaining, and rehiring after separations in order to fulfill the [NPS] mission…” We urge you to retain this language, which would support resource protection, public access, visitor safety, tribal consultation and more. As noted above, specifying a specific staff number would go even further.
We support the bill language on page 23 that specifies that disaster relief funds in the American Relief Act of December 2024 are obligated as intended by Congress. This law (P.L. 118-158) provided $2.3 billion in critically needed funds for numerous national parks significantly impacted by disasters including Hurricane Helene, which devastated the Blue Ridge Parkway and other southeastern NPS units.
We request inclusion of Sec. 130, that maintains national parks as federal land. Though NPS lands cannot be disposed of without congressional authorization, this provision makes clear Congress’ intent that national parks cannot and should not be given away or sold. The administration’s FY26 budget proposed transferring NPS units, and their proposed funding cuts could eliminate hundreds of NPS units.
We applaud and urge inclusion provisions (Secs. 429, 430 and 431) that protect the Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF). The LWCF is an incredibly effective and important conservation tool that protects national parks and other federal lands, as well as provide opportunities for public access and community recreation.
Sec. 448. We urge inclusion of this provision requiring notification to the appropriations committees of RIFs and other significant workforce actions within 45 days. This provision would ensure that indiscriminate firings not take place without congressional oversight. An extension of the RIF prohibition in HR 5371, as discussed above, would add substantial weight to this effort.
We also support these provisions that ensure accountability and transparency of appropriations and make it clear that the committee does not want the administration to sequester funds, delay grants, cancel grants with no cause, cancel leases without justification, and more.
- Sec. 443 requires 5-year construction plans including deferred maintenance. The 5-year plans for NPS have always been published in the annual NPS Budget Justifications but the administration did not publish that document this year.
- Sec. 444 is a new section requiring quarterly reporting of DOI and other agency disaster estimates. NPS is regularly devastated by costly incidents and transparency is important.
- Secs. 446 and 447 would ensure that agencies including NPS must notify grant recipients of cancellations with justifications within a week, and that grants are awarded in a reasonable time frame. This supports routine grants that introduce students to nature, allow people to assist park staff in restoring trails, and otherwise connect people to natural and cultural resources.
- Sec. 449 should ensure that funds are obligated as Congress intends. It expands a prior section on “Program Funding Incorporated by Reference” to list all the accounts for which agencies are directed by law to fund programs as specified in the committee report.
- Sec. 450 helps to safeguard employee compensation and benefits. For NPS, this means that NPS money cannot be robbed to pay for staff transferred to DOI for reorganization purposes as has been the case this year.
- Sec. 451 requires 180 days notification with details to the congressional committees of jurisdiction prior to cancelling any building leases. This year, DOI sought to cancel 35 NPS building leases important for visitor services, resource protection, law enforcement, and more. Cancellation of these leases would have crippled many parks’ ability to meet their mission to ensure visitor enjoyment and safety and protect resources.
Disaster Relief: Provide Funding for Disasters on NPS Land
Given the challenges of passing appropriations bills, we respectfully ask you to consider including emergency disaster funding for recovery from this year’s wildfires and floods in our national parks. This year, the Dragon Bravo fire destroyed infrastructure—including the historic Grand Canyon Lodge—and habitat at the North Rim of the Grand Canyon. A wildfire caused significant and costly damage at Black Canyon of the Gunnison National Park and flooding destroyed areas of Joshua Tree National Park. Absorbing these costs within a limited budget would be difficult or impossible.
In summary, our national parks and the park staff not only protect unique historic and natural resources but also support the national economy with more than fifteen dollars in economic activity for every dollar invested. National parks are more popular than ever with over 325 million visits a year contributing over $55 billion in economic output and supporting 415,000 jobs. In addition, America’s outdoor recreation economy supports over 5 million American jobs and contributes $1.2 trillion in annual economic output. In 2024, there were over 72.4 million international arrivals to the United States and research indicates that national parks were a huge tourism attraction for those visitors.
The future of our National Park System depends on Congress ensuring they have the funding and personnel to care for them. Therefore, we urge you to produce a conferenced FY26 Interior, Environment and Related Agencies bill that supports our parks.
Thank you for considering our views,
American Society of Landscape Architects
The Anza Trail Foundation
Appalachian Trail Conservancy
Atomic Heritage Foundation
Chattachoochee National Park Conservancy
Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks
Environmental Evangelical Network
Friends of Acadia
Friends of Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park
Friends of Katahdin Woods and Waters
Friends of Pu’uhonua o Honaunau National Historical Park
Friends of Saguaro National Park
The Fund for People in Parks
International Inbound Travel Association
National Parks Conservation Association
Partnership for the National Trail System
Public Lands Alliance
Restore Oregon
RV Industry Association
Scenic America
Shenandoah National Park Trust
Southeast Tourism Society
The Wilderness Society
United States Tour Operators Association
Voyageurs Conservancy
Washington Trails Association