The National Park Service broke agency rules to send an exorbitant share of 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 higher-ups at the Interior Department ordered him to ensure that the Presidio, a park in Mrs. Pelosi’s district, got the money. He was told they had concluded it was Congress’ intent when it allocated the $200 million — even though the law didn’t say that.
Mr. Sams acknowledged last week that sending the money violated several of his agency’s norms.
With a couple of other projects, Mrs. Pelosi’s district collected nearly a quarter of the entire amount of funding that Congress authorized last year for reducing the maintenance backlog at park service sites, Republican lawmakers said. A quarter of the money for one of 435 districts 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. Thomas Tiffany, Wisconsin Republican, told Interior Secretary Deb Haaland.
Rep. Bruce Westerman, Arkansas Republican and chairman of the Natural Resources Committee, said Mrs. Pelosi tried to get the money included in the climate-budget bill, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, but it was struck because of “high objection” from other lawmakers.
He said he was shocked when the money went to the project anyway.
“The perception is that this was a payoff to Speaker Pelosi,” Mr. Westerman said.
Ms. Haaland suggested that she was miffed.
“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 at the Golden Gate Bridge that has been converted into a gem of a park site, with a mix of scenery and commercial attractions such as 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 allocated $1.5 billion to the park service for fiscal 2023 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 been divided evenly among all 435 congressional districts, Mrs. Pelosi 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 specify exactly where money should go. Those are usually called “earmarks.”
More often, Congress authorizes pots of money for a purpose and then relies on an agency to go through a fair process before distributing the funds.
There were all sorts of oddities about how the Presidio jumped the line.
Mr. Sams acknowledged that 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.
Mrs. Pelosi announced the funding in a press release from her congressional office in February. The folks who run the site merely copied her press release. Mr. Sams acknowledged that the park service had never heard of such spending.
He said he couldn’t think of another park service press release that contained “partisan attacks originally released by a congressional office.”
He said he visited the Presidio recently and found about $400 million in maintenance projects.
Mr. Westerman countered that the Presidio was supposed to be financially self-sufficient when it was added to the park service’s holdings.
Mrs. Pelosi’s office didn’t respond to an inquiry for this report.
Rep. Joe Neguse, Colorado Democrat, said during Mr. Sams’ testimony last week that the park service would probably end up spending on deferred maintenance projects in every state by the time all the Great American Outdoors Act money is spent.
He suggested that singling out Mrs. Pelosi’s project was wrong, but he couldn’t explain why her district 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.”
Republicans said the way the Presidio says it will use the money seems to break with park service policies.
The Presidio boasted that it would use the money to help it “be a ‘zero climate impact’ park.” Mr. Sams said the park service does not consider that a legitimate use of deferred maintenance money.
Mr. Sams testified that an assistant secretary at the Interior Department, which oversees the park service, ordered him to send the money to Mrs. Pelosi’s district.
Republicans fired off a letter Friday to Shannon A. Estenoz, the assistant secretary for fish and wildlife and parks, demanding an explanation.
The Interior Department didn’t respond to a request for comment.
• Stephen Dinan can be reached at sdinan@washingtontimes.com.
Please read our comment policy before commenting.