We're celebrating 100 years of the National Park Service - and right now our parks are more popular than ever! Congress even increased funding for important park operations in the current funding bill working its way through the Capitol.
But instead of simply funding our parks, Congress has taken advantage of the funding process to try to end protections for wolves under the endangered species act.
Even worse, in addition to ending wolf protections, this funding bill would also stop the EPA from implementing important clean water protections, stop the Obama administration from limiting old-growth logging in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, and limit the president's ability to create new national monuments. We need the Senate to stop these horrible anti-environmental measures.
We all know Congress has a lot of gridlock. One way special interests try to get around Washington DC's inability to pass laws is to attach legislation to must-pass funding bills. If Congress can't fund the government, it shuts down, which is highly unpopular.
That's why polluters, anti-wolf ranchers and trophy hunters, the timber industry and others attach these legislative riders to government funding bills. Between the bill that passed the House of Representatives, and the bill passed by the Senate committee, over 20 anti-environmental riders have been attached to the appropriations bill that funds the National Park Service and other important federal agencies.
It's disappointing that at the exact moment we should be celebrating the park service, some in Congress are attempting to hijack the process. Instead of thanking Congress for increasing the agency's resources in order to bring in more rangers, tackle long-needed maintenance, increase historic preservation efforts and allow more school children to appreciate our park legacy, we need to rally efforts to stop these funding bills from moving forward as currently written.
The full Senate is our best chance to remove these anti-wolf and anti-environmental measures from the National Park Service funding bill. Sign the petition to tell your Senator you want wolves AND national park funding! Remove these anti-environmental riders now.
National Park Service funding should not come at the expense of protections for wolves, or other important environmental initiatives. Please strip off all anti-environmental riders from the interior appropriations bill before sending this critical funding measure to the president.
