WASHINGTON — U.S. Sen. Mark R. Warner (D-VA) today issued a statement responding to U.S. Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke's trip to Virginia, where he is expected to visit the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park and Booker T. Washington National Monument

“More than a year ago, I introduced bipartisan legislation to set aside money to finally fix the $12 billion maintenance backlog at our national parks. While I share Secretary Zinke’s sense of urgency about this issue, the proposal the Administration is supporting — which is actually based on my own bill — is no solution at all," Sen. Warner said. "Instead of setting aside dedicated funding for our national parks, the only way the National Park Service would see any money from this proposal is through a huge expansion of drilling, or a massive increase in the price of oil. If the Administration wants to get serious about addressing our national parks backlog — and I hope they will — they should get behind my bipartisan proposal, which has the support of the National Park Conservation Association and the Pew Charitable Trusts.”?

A year ago this month, Sen. Warner visited the Appomattox Court House National Historical Park to highlight his bipartisan legislation with Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH) to eliminate the maintenance backlog, the National Park Service Legacy Act. The bill would help eradicate the maintenance backlog at the Park Service by directing existing revenues from mineral royalties toward deferred maintenance needs of the National Park Service.

In March of this year, the U.S. Department of the Interior announced its own proposal, which bears substantial similarities to the Warner-Portman bill.  

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