Senate Democrats are questioning the Trump administration’s use of National Park Service funds to renovate the capital city ahead of Independence Day, according to a Wednesday letter sent to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum.
The lawmakers are demanding an explanation for the use of recreation fees — money that’s pulled from national parks like Yellowstone and Yosemite — that they say is footing the president’s “vanity projects” in Washington. The Trump administration is rapidly renovating monuments and parksahead of Washington celebrations of the nation’s 250th birthday next month.
Led by Sens. Adam Schiff of California and New Mexico’s Martin Heinrich, the ranking member on the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, the letter raises concerns that the spate of investment in Washington could drain a key source of revenue to pay for a $24 billion backlogged maintenance in parks.
“Visitors to our national parks contribute millions of dollars,” the senators wrote in a letter to Burgum. “The redistribution of revenues to D.C. projects could mean multiple millions of dollars lost for individual national parks around the country.”
