As Congress moves closer to passing President Trump’s sweeping tax and budget bill — which would slash funding for food assistance, Medicaid, and clean energy — advocates are sounding the alarm about the future of America’s National Parks.
The bill would strip the National Park Service of over a billion dollars for park operations, law enforcement, scientific research, and search and rescue efforts.
In total, New Mexico is home to 15 National Park Service sites — including White Sands and Carlsbad Caverns National Parks, as well as the Petroglyph and Gila Cliff Dwellings National Monuments.
But, even before these proposed cuts, the agency was stretched thin.
“Nearly every park is short staffed, and park rangers that you're seeing on the ground are doing multiple duties,” said Kristen Brengel, senior vice president of government affairs at the National Parks Conservation Association.
Brengel said the unprecedented cuts have her worried about safety in a time where parks are seeing record-breaking surges in visitation.
Though, the Trump administration sees it differently.
At last week’s Western Governors’ Association meeting in Santa Fe, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum claimed that half of the agency’s 26,000 employees work outside of parks – highlighting the need for a top-down “restructuring.”
“I somehow think we don't need 1,000 people in communications and 2,000 Twitter sites for our 63 crown jewel national parks and our 400 or so historic sites,” Secretary Burgum said. “I think we can be a little more efficient around that.”
The National Parks Conservation Association disputes these claims, pointing out that the Department of the Interior’s own workforce database lists just over 2,060 “office staff” nationwide as of May 13th. Additionally, it says there are 18,000 Park Service employees (not 26,000) and about 450 work in IT or HR roles – contradicting the Secretary’s figures.
The current budget reconciliation bill would claw back $267 million set aside in former President Joe Biden’s Inflation Reduction Act for park staffing this year, rising to over a billion dollars next year.
Bergum has pledged to hire as much as 7,700 more seasonal employees for the peak summer months to tackle the problem. But, according to an analysis by Brengel’s organization, the numbers don’t add up.
“They’re not even able to hire half of what they [the Park Service] wanted to for this summer,” Brengel said. “So parks are going to be in a tough position.”
Overall, the National Park Service generated $55.6 billion in economic output across the country in 2023 – $177 million in New Mexico alone.
After weeks of contentious debate, the U.S. Senate finalized their version of the “Big, Beautiful Bill” Tuesday morning.
In addition to staffing, this iteration mandates more leasing and drilling on public lands near national monuments and parks.
GOP leadership wants to pass the megabill before the Independence Day recess, a nod to the day’s historical significance in American history. It now heads back to the U.S. House of Representatives for another vote.
