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1975-1980
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Visitor Fees in
the National Park System: A Legislative and Administrative History V. CONFLICTING PRESSURES; CONGRESS PUTS THE LID ON 1975-1980 |
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Freezing the Entrance Fees, 1979-1980
In March 1977 Representative Goodloe Byron of Maryland introduced another amendment to the Land and Water Conservation Fund Act. Among its provisions was one freezing National Park System entrance fees at their January 1, 1977, levels and prohibiting new entrance, increases in existing fees, or extensions of fee collection seasons "except by Act of Congress." [10]
Byron's bill was not acted upon in the 95th Congress, but legislation with a similar provision was introduced in the 96th Congress by Representative Phillip Buxton and others and passed the House on May 7, 1979. "While my fundamental position is that these Federal areas should be open to all citizens without costs," said Burton on the House floor before passage, "we have chosen, at this time, to simply restrict the administration from increasing fees in these areas or extending fees to areas which are now free." [11]
A week later the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources (replacing the Interior Committee) approved another bill to which was attached a matching fee freeze amendment. "The committee adopted this amendment in response to an Administration proposal to increase entrance and user fees at National Park System units in fiscal year 1980 by some 74 percent over fiscal year 1979 levels," its report stated. The report went on to criticize the Service's justification of the proposal at the subcommittee hearing:
At that hearing, Director Whalen indicated that this proposed increase was based solely on the decision to raise additional revenues rather than any economic analysis or careful study relative to the effect of these proposed increases on the park visitor. Equally disturbing is the fact that these additional revenues...would be used for park maintenance and rehabilitation projects. The normal Park Service maintenance account would be reduced by the amount of increase fees [sic] collected.... The language adopted by the committee....will permit a more careful examination of this "link" between maintenance costs and park fees. [12]
Assistant Secretary of the Interior Robert L. Herbst countered with a letter to Walter F. Mondale,, President of the Senate, pleading against passage of the Senate bill. The letter presented the arguments cited in the OMB reprimand and conveyed that office's warning "that unless S. 495 is amended to delete the entrance and transportation fee provisions, S. 495 would not be in accord with the programs of the President." [13] The Senate was not deterred, passing the bill on June 7.
Whalen attempted to redeem himself with the administration the following month. Appearing before Senator Bumpers' subcommittee on another matter, he raised the subject of the freeze and urged that it at least be made temporary:
Give us some time to work with your committee and others in Congress on how best to address the entrance fee issue. I would suggest that the conference report indicate your willingness to amend the freeze perhaps as early as January 1, 1980. By that time, I would hope that some agreement could be reached on the issue. [14]
But the appeal was to no avail. With no indication of temporary intent, the freeze provisions adopted by the two houses were incorporated in a veto-resistant omnibus park bill, which was in turn passed by the Congress and signed by President Jimmy Carter on October 12, 1979. Section 402 of the resulting Public Law 96-87 read,
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Secretary shall not charge any entrance or admission fee in excess of the amounts which were in effect as of January 1, 1979, or charge said fees at any unit of the National Park System where such fees were not in effect as of such date, nor shall the Secretary charge after the date of enactment of this section, user fees for transportation services and facilities in Mount McKinley National Park, Alaska. [15]
Representative Buxton was not long content with this simple freeze of the status quo. In the second session of the same Congress, he shepherded another bill through the House providing that "no Federal fee shall be imposed for entrance or admission to any national recreation area, any unit of the National Wild and Scenic Rivers System, or any unit of the National Trails System." Additionally, no entrance fee could be collected after June 1, 1981, at any NPS area where receipts exceeded collection costs by less than $2,000 in 1979, unless the Secretary of the Interior determined that fee collection was necessary to protect an affected park's resources and so notified the responsible congressional committees in advance. The latter provision, Buxton said on the House floor, was directed to areas "where profits are so marginal that their continuation appears to be an exercise in bureaucratic inertia rather than a thoughtful program. Of particular concern to me is the imposition of such fees of national historic sites, where we should be offering every encouragement to our citizens to learn something of their heritage." He took a tough stand on the escape clause: "I want to serve notice to the Interior Department that this Member, for one, will not find an indiscriminate use of this exemption to be in any way acceptable." The House passed the bill on September 22, 1980, but time was running out for the 96th Congress and the Senate took no action. [16]
Led again by Representative Burton, the entrance fee opposition was simultaneously at work on another front. Following the 1938 Mount Rushmore precedent, two bills were enacted in 1978 prohibiting such fees at particular parks: Golden Gate National Recreation Area, Virgin Islands National Park, War in the Pacific National Historical Park, and American Memorial Park (an affiliated area on Saipan). During the 96th Congress park-specific prohibitions were extended to the 16 new and existing areas in Alaska, Biscayne National Park, Boston African American National Historic Site (an affiliated area), Channel Islands National Park, Fort Jefferson National Monument, Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site, and Point Reyes National Seashore. [17] The blanket proscription of new entrance fees in Public Law 96-87 left only those areas charging at the beginning of 1979-about 20 percent of the System's total--able to do so in the future.
NEXT> Visitor Transportation System Fees
10H.R. 5524, 95th Congress, Mar. 23, 1977.
11H.R. 3757, 96th Congress; Congressional Record, May 7, 1979, pp. H2749, H2752. (Representative in October 1978.)
12Senate Report 96-180, May 15, 1979, p. 7.
13Letter, Herbst to Mondale, June 6, 1979, NPS Office of Legislation, Washington, D.C.
14U.S., Congress, Senate, Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, Channel Islands National Park, Hearing on S. 1104 and H.R. 3757, July 19, 1979, p. 79.
16H.R. 8087; Congressional Record, Sept. 22, 1980, pp. H9269-71. Fourteen of the 62 parks charging entrance fees in 1979 would have been prevented from doing so by the bill: Andrew Johnson NHS, Fort Pulaski NM, John F. Kennedy NHS, John Muir NHS, Longfellow NHS, Minute Man NHP, Tuzigoot NM, and Walnut Canyon NM took in under $2,000 more than collection costs; Natural Bridges NM, Saint-Gaudens NHS, Scotts Bluff NM, Theodore Roosevelt Birthplace NHS, Tonto NM, and Tumacacori NM did not meet collection costs.
1792 Stat. 487, 3467; 94 Stat. 67, 77, 600, 601, 1842, 1846, 2371.
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