$3.5 Billion to National Park Service in Fiscal Year 2022 Budget
President Biden's fiscal year 2022 budget would direct funds to the National Park Service to build back better.
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On May 28th, the Biden administration submitted to Congress the President’s Budget for fiscal year 2022, which included $3.5 billion to the National Park Service. The funds would go towards modernizing parks, expanded visitor access, conservation, visitor safety, and infrastructure. This is an increase in the budget for NPS up from $2.8 billion in 2021.
“President Biden’s budget supports efforts across the National Park Service to recover from the pandemic, expand the benefits of the great outdoors to all Americans and respond to the ongoing challenges of climate change,” said NPS Deputy Director Shawn Benge. “The proposed National Park Service budget of $3.5 billion together with another $1.1 billion in mandatory funding, will allow us to make needed improvements to parks across the country, providing our visitors with better experiences and advancing the mission of the National Park Service to preserve and protect these lands unimpaired for future generations.”
According to the National Park Service, the budget would support:
- Responding to the pandemic and keeping visitors safe.
- Expanding visitor access and equity.
- Responding to climate change and investing in conservation.
- Modernizing parks and park infrastructure.
Park visitors spent an estimated $21 billion in 2019 while visiting National Park Service lands across the country. This supported 341,000 jobs and $14.1 billion in labor income. Over 20,000 NPS employees care for the 432 national parks.
