Obama proposes $1.5 billion for national parks

Gregory Korte | USA TODAY

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration sent to Congress a $1.5 billion proposal to upgrade national parks Tuesday, using a combination of tax money, fee increases, donations and commercial partnerships for a three-year improvement plan marking the 100th anniversary of the National Park Service.

The White House made the proposal as President Obama touring national parks in Alaska this week. Although the focus of the three-day trip is on climate change, he's also used it as an opportunity to highlight national parks. On Sunday, the White House announced that Mount McKinley would be renamed Denali, and on Tuesday, he was scheduled to take a boat tour of Kenai Fjords National Park in Seward, Alaska.

The National Park Service Centennial Act would seek $100 million in private donations each year for three years, matching them dollar-for-dollar with tax money for special "challenge" projects. It would spend another $900 million to address a maintenance backlog in parks, and $300 million for projects on other federal lands.

Those improvements would be funded, in part, by increasing the cost of a lifetime pass for senior citizens. People aged 62 and older now pay $10 for the lifetime pass, which would be raised to $80. The remaining $70 would help fund a $300 million National Park Service Second Century Fund. The proposal would also add 5% to the cost of camping or lodging in national parks.

But the program would also expand the use of free park passes for people who volunteer 250 or more hours a year. Right now, that program is capped at $3.5 million, which allows for only about 43,750 passes at $80 apiece. Last year, 247,000 people volunteered almost 6.7 million hours of time.

The proposal would also expand the use of commercial vendors on park lands to provide food, lodging and visitor services.

Congress is on recess until after Labor Day, and Republicans on Capitol Hill said they were still reviewing the proposal and didn't have an immediate reaction.

Also Tuesday, the National Park Service formally launched the Every Kid in a Park program, a program President Obama first announced in February that will give free parks admission to fourth graders and their families.