The National Park Service broke its own rules to send an exorbitant share of its park maintenance money to former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s district – including the entire $200 million pot of money that Congress included in last year’s budget-climate bill.
Director Charles F. Sams revealed to Congress that he was ordered by higher-ups at the Interior Department to make sure the Presidio, a park in Mrs. Pelosi’s district, got the money. He was told they had concluded it was Congress’s intent when it allocated the $200 million – even though the law didn’t say that.
Mr. Sams admitted last week that the spending violated several of his agency’s norms in sending the money to the powerful Democrat.
Combined with a couple of other projects, Mrs. Pelosi’s district walked away with nearly a quarter of the entire amount of funding Congress authorized last year for reducing the maintenance backlog at Park Service sites, GOP lawmakers said. There are 435 districts, so getting a quarter of the money would be seriously out of proportion.
“NPS to us stands for the National Park Service. We’re very concerned that this has become Nancy’s Park Service,” Rep. Tom Tiffany, Wisconsin Republican, told Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said Mrs. Pelosi had tried to get the money included in the climate-budget bill, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, but it was stricken because of “high objection” among other lawmakers.
So he was shocked when the money went to the project anyway.
“The perception is that this was a payoff to Speaker Pelosi,” the Arkansas Republican said.
Ms. Haaland suggested she was miffed by the whole thing.
“I want to assure you that we follow the law on every single thing that we do. I cannot speak to the specifics of the situation at this time,” she said.
The Presidio is a former military base right at the Golden Gate Bridge that was converted into a gem of a park site, with a mix of scenery and commercial attractions like a golf course, luxury hotels, retail stores and museums.
The park service maintains the coastal area while the Presidio Trust, a federal agency, runs the commercial area.
Mrs. Pelosi’s district also received $63.6 million from the Park Service for Alcatraz, a former prison on an island, and $102.3 million for the San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park.
Congress in fiscal 2023 allocated $1.5 billion to the Park Service to work on its backlogged maintenance projects. The $365.9 million sent to Mrs. Pelosi’s district works out to 24% of the total.
If the $1.5 billion had instead been divided evenly among all 435 congressional districts, she would have walked away with less than $3.5 million.
The payments raise big questions about spending and government decision-making.
Congress authorizes the spending and can, when it chooses, specify exactly where money should go. Those are usually called “earmarks.”
But more often, Congress authorizes pots of money for a purpose, then relies on an agency to go through a fair process for deciding who should get what.
There were all sorts of oddities about how the Presidio jumped the line.
Mr. Sams admitted the Park Service didn’t follow the standards for maintenance money, which Congress laid out in the Great American Outdoors Act, when it sent the money to Mrs. Pelosi’s district.
The spending was first announced by Mrs. Pelosi in a press release from her congressional office in February, and the folks who run the site merely copied her press release. Mr. Sams admitted that was unheard of for Park Service spending.
He also said he couldn’t think of another Park Service press release that contained “partisan attacks originally released by a congressional office.”
He did say that when he visited the Presidio recently, there were about $400 million in maintenance projects.
Mr. Westerman countered that when the Presidio was added to the Park Service’s holdings, it was supposed to be financially self-sufficient.
Mrs. Pelosi’s office didn’t respond to an inquiry for this story.
Rep. Joe Neguse, during Mr. Sams’s testimony last week, said the Park Service would probably end up spending on deferred maintenance projects in every state by the time the GAOA money is all spent.
The Colorado Democrat suggested it was wrong to pick on Mrs. Pelosi’s project. But he couldn’t explain why she got such a large share of the available money.
“I’ll take a look at the statistics you’ve provided today,” he told the Republicans. “What I take issue with is the characterization that these projects are only being funded in one district.”
But Republicans said even the way the Presidio says it will use the money seems to break with Park Service policies.
The Presidio bragged that the money will be used to help it “to be a ‘zero climate impact’ park.” Mr. Sams said that is not something the Park Service considers legitimate use of deferred maintenance money.
Mr. Sams testified that it was an assistant secretary at the Interior Department, which oversees the Park Service, who ordered him to spend the money in Mrs. Pelosi’s district.
Republicans fired off a letter Friday to Shannon A. Estenoz, the assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, demanding she explain the decision-making.
The Interior Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
