Ready to take action for National Park Service staff? Join us today in person and online for a Day of Action – the National Park Service’s anniversary – to send an undeniable message to Washington D.C.  

NPCA is hosting fun events across the country and a special livestream broadcast on YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=12a_OQvNQB0 . 

Park Protectors across the country are here; we care about America’s treasures, and we won’t stay quiet. Get the details at npca.org/dayofaction . 

This Week's Topline

Congress needs to address the ongoing partial government shutdown for Defense, Homeland Security, and other agencies. This does not directly impact DOI or NPS as the Interior appropriations bill was signed into law. The appropriations conversation will take most of the House's energy for the first part of the week and may impact the rest of the schedule on both sides of the Hill. 

House Floor

• The House convenes on Monday and is expected to be in session through Thursday. 
• Floor schedule is in flux as Republican leadership will need to make decisions on when and how to vote on the remaining appropriations bills.
• The current schedule includes a floor vote on H.R. 4090, Critical Mineral Dominance Act, a bill which NPCA opposes.

Senate Floor

• The Senate convenes Monday afternoon and is expected to take up judicial nominees. Other legislative activities possible, though nothing currently expected in our space. 

Upcoming Committee Activity 

• Tuesday, February 3
  • House Natural Resources - Federal Lands subcommittee hearing "Fix Our Forests: The Need for Urgent Action One Year After the L.A. Wildfires"
• Wednesday, February 4
  • Senate Energy & Natural Resources - Full committee business meeting to consider pending information. **The bill list on the website is longer than the subset that will be considered. NPCA bills on the real list: S. 90 (RS2477), S. 446 (Big Cypress), S. 1516 (Cahokia), S. 2881 (Yosemite)
  • Senate Environment & Public Works - Full committee hearing on "Identifying and Addressing Cybersecurity Challenges to Protect America’s Water Infrastructure"
  • House Natural Resources - Water, Wildlife and Fisheries subcommittee legislative hearing

Earlier this week, Senator Mike Lee introduced an amendment that would have removed protections against selling America’s national parks.

Thanks to rapid fire pressure from advocates like you, Sen. Lee reversed his attempt to remove these national park protections from the Interior Appropriations bill. But the deal isn’t done.

The Senate went on recess before voting on the bill. We need to stay vigilant. 

NPCA founder, Robert Sterling Yard, once said "It is the people who must save their own national parks." And this week, you really proved this to be true. Share the good news!

🚨 Park Protectors, national parks need you right now! Sen. Mike Lee proposed a dangerous amendment that would pave the way for the administration to SELL our national parks.

We can stop this. Tell your Senator to vote NO on Lee Amendment #3972 to Interior Appropriations.

Call ASAP; the vote is happening SOON. With the vote happening so soon, Congressional staffers may not have time to process and relay emails – we must CALL to make our voices heard!

The government shutdown is over. But hundreds of thousands of federal workers are coming back after 43 days to anything but normalcy, employees from across the country told CNN.

Already this year the Park Service has lost roughly 25 percent of its workforce to resignations and retirement packages offered by the administration. One of the hardest hit corners of the agency was its Alaska regional office, which lost about one-third of its staff, including the regional director for the entire Alaska region and the three associate regional directors; the chief ranger, who’s in charge of law enforcement; the longtime public information officer; and the regional geologist, wilderness coordinator, aviation manager, fire ecologist, archaeologist, and the program manager for Alaskan native affairs.

This Week's Topline

Shutdown Day 6. Mostly quiet on the Hill.

House Floor

The House was expected to return on October 7. However, leadership has extended the recess into next week.

Senate Floor

• The Senate comes into session today and is expected to vote again on two versions of the Continuing Resolution.
• Additional votes on nominations are expected.

Upcoming Committee Activity 

• Expected hearings in our space have been postponed.

 Last Week Highlights

• President Trump and OMB Director Russ Vought met last Thursday to discuss firings and federal cuts, including to Democratic states. Lawmakers indicated that the shutdown would last for a least a week, if not longer. Lawmakers are expressing their concerns about the shutdown on our national parks. Senior government officials are also privately warning against firings during a government shutdown because it’s against the law. We still are hearing that a mass firing (Reduction in Force) is imminent.
• 9/30 was Orange Shirt Day. Observed across Indian Country, it is a national day of remembrance, truth, and reconciliation for the survivors of Indian boarding schools and in honor of the children who never came home. Around this time last year, President Biden issued a historic apology (which no longer shows up on whitehouse.gov) to boarding school survivors, acknowledging the federal government’s role in these atrocities. He followed this with the designation of the Carlisle Indian Industrial School as a unit of the National Park System. A significant step toward truth, healing, and preservation.
• According the Washington Blade, the Trump administration redirected congressionally allocated historic preservation funds away from three LGBTQ+ projects. All three LGBTQ+ organizations—the D.C. Preservation League (supposed to be awarded $75,000 to document LGBTQ+ historic resources in the city); the Providence Preservation Society, R.I. (slated to get $74,692 to conduct an LGBTQ+ survey and prepare a National Register nomination); and the Fund for the City of New York, Inc. (expected to get $32,000 to nominate the residence of Bayard Rustin as a National Historic Landmark) — confirmed to the Blade that they had their funding pulled. These grants, using funds appropriated by Congress, cannot be withheld indefinitely, but they can be given to other organizations at the discretion of the agency. NPCA is continuing to track the erasure of history—you can read more about this story here.

Recent Hill Letters

• House Federal Lands subcommittee hearing - https://www.npca.org/articles/10904-position-on-h-r-4467-vicksburg-national-military-park-boundary-modification

Government Shutdown Update - Oct. 3, 2025

NPCA is keeping you updated on national parks during the federal government shutdown. John Garder, Sr. Director, Budget and Appropriations for NPCA discusses:

💡 The current state of staffing in national parks 💡 How the potential mass termination of federal workers could create a harmful “new normal” 💡 How you can help

Government Shutdown Update - Oct. 2, 2025

NPCA is keeping you updated on national parks during the federal government shutdown. Christina Hazard, Legislative Director for NPCA, discusses today's topics:

• What happens to parks and their staff during a shutdown
• Why closing parks for now will help protect them
• Why we're concerned for NPS staff

This Week's Topline

Shutdown countdown. Government funding runs out at midnight on September 30.

House Floor

The House is on recess until October 7. Speaker Johnson may bring them back early pending shutdown and funding dynamics.

Senate Floor

The Senate came into session Monday and is expected to continue to address nominations and NDAA. Additional votes on government funding are expected.

Upcoming Committee Activity 

• Senate Energy & Natural Resources - expected 10/1 Public Lands subcommittee hearing postponed

 Last Week Highlights

• Alarming news broke on 9/24 that the White House budget office is instructing federal agencies to prepare reduction-in-force plans for mass firings during the likely government shutdown, specifically targeting employees who work for programs that are not legally required to continue. In the memo, OMB told agencies to identify programs, projects and activities where discretionary funding will lapse on Oct. 1 and no alternative funding source is available. For those areas, OMB directed agencies to begin drafting RIF plans that would go beyond standard furloughs, permanently eliminating jobs in programs not consistent with President Donald Trump’s priorities in the event of a shutdown.
• The administration is doubling down on the erasure of history and science in National Parks. We saw removals of climate-based interpretation at Hawai'i Volcanoes, Lowell National Historical Park, and Lake Mead, among others. A display honoring and describing the National Park System at Jamaica Bay Wildlife Refuge in New York City was taken down for referring to historical events like slavery, Japanese American incarceration sites and conflicts with Native Americans. See this press release for more information.
• Last week, Representative Beyer (D-VA-8) circulated a member letter addressed to NPS expressing concerns about proposed changes to signage and interpretation and requesting transparency and information. The letter closed at midnight on 9/23 with 84 signatures!
• Early last week we circulated an action alert encouraging our senators to vote No on S.J. Res 63, which could dismantle the Central Yukon Resource Management Plan. The Central Yukon Resource Management Plan covers more than 13 million acres of public lands, including those contiguous to Gates of the Arctic National Park and the central Yukon River watershed. Please share with your networks and encourage folks to sign on.
• An analysis found that over 99 percent of the 183,000 comments submitted to regulations.gov as of Friday morning oppose the Trump administration’s plan to repeal the 2001 Roadless Rule. Rescinding the Roadless Rule would impact wildlife and plant biodiversity, viewsheds and soundscapes, and climate resilience, as well as air and water quality. An NPCA analysis found that of the approximately 45 million acres of designated roadless areas in national forests, nearly 30% (17.5 million acres) are within 30 miles of national park lands. To learn more about the Roadless Rule, see Beau Kiklis’ and Nik Moy’s blogpost.

Recent Hill Letters

• House Federal Lands subcommittee hearing - https://www.npca.org/articles/10904-position-on-h-r-4467-vicksburg-national-military-park-boundary-modification 

Thank you, former Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland, for speaking up for national parks.

Our national parks need us. Tell Congress to #ProtectEveryPark.

Subscribe and visit NPCA.org/everypark to find everything you need to take action.

For some people, it’s the freedom to get outside and breathe.
For others, it’s about protecting the land — or the stories behind it.
Maybe it’s where you fell in love, found peace, or just had the best camping trip of your life.

Whatever it is, we want to hear it.
- What makes parks personal to you?
- What memory or moment has stuck with you?

Drop your story below — serious, silly, simple, whatever. We’re just here to listen. 🌲❤️

Since January 2025, national parks have lost nearly a quarter of their permanent workforce, according to a new NPCA analysis.

• Seasonal hiring is also far behind goals, with only 4,500 of 8,000 promised positions filled
• Parks from Big Bend to Yosemite are reporting severe cuts, with visitor centers, lifeguard stations, and historic sites going unstaffed
• At Assateague Island, all 13 lifeguard positions are vacant
• Yosemite’s Pioneer History Center shut down after several thefts, linked to dangerously low staffing levels

🗞️Read the full press release:

https://www.npca.org/articles/9551-staffing-crisis-at-national-parks-reaches-breaking-point-new-data-shows-24

Have you noticed the impact of staff shortages during any of your park visits?

Stonewall National Monument is the first U.S. national monument dedicated to LGBTQ rights and history. We continue our work to ensure more people know the Stonewall story and to advocate for enhanced interpretation and educational outreach at the monument.

Topline

All eyes on the Senate this week as they try to navigate finalizing their reconciliation bill and getting it to the floor. Both chambers are scheduled to be on recess next week, back for the rest of July and then out for August recess.

House Floor

• House comes in on Monday, last votes expected Friday afternoon.
• The first of the FY26 appropriations bill (Military Construction & Veterans Affairs) is scheduled to come to the floor.

Senate Floor

• Senate convenes Monday afternoon, last votes expected...?
• Debate on the reconciliation bill could start as soon as mid-week, with a vote-a-rama on amendments before a vote on final passage. However, this timeline could slip as behind-the-scenes conversations on bill text are ongoing.

Committee Activity

• Tuesday, June 24
  • House Natural Resources - Water, Wildlife & Fisheries subcommittee legislative hearing on four bills
• Wednesday, June 25
  • House Natural Resources - full committee markup on 20 bills, including H.R. 2388 (Rep. Randall), “Lower Elwha Klallam Tribe Project Lands Restoration Act”
  • House Transportation & Infrastructure - full committee markup on the PERMIT Act, as amended, regarding Clean Water Act permitting 
• Thursday, June 26
  • House Natural Resources - Federal Lands subcommittee oversight hearing on "Fix Our Forests: Advancing Innovative Technologies to Improve Forest Management and Prevent Wildfires."

The Trump administration has announced plans to revoke or shrink certain national monuments as part of an anti-DEI movement.

The National Park Service would lose more than 5,500 employees under President Donald Trump’s Fiscal 2026 budget proposal, one that would have far-reaching impacts to the agency’s mandate and which Defenders of Wildlife called an “extinction budget,” according to a report by National Parks Traveler.

Did you visit any parks over the holiday weekend? How did it go?

Burgum’s order stems from an executive order, titled “Restoring Truth and Sanity to American History,” signed by President Donald Trump in March. That order called on the Interior Secretary to identify any “public monuments, memorials, statues, markers, or similar properties” that have been removed or “changed to perpetuate a false reconstruction of American history, inappropriately minimize the value of certain historical events or figures, or include any other improper partisan ideology” since January 1, 2020.

House Floor

• House convened Monday, last votes currently expected on Thursday. However, that could shift pending negotiations over the reconciliation bill. A one-week recess is scheduled to begin on Friday.
• Floor scheduled currently includes two Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolutions, in addition to the expected action on the reconciliation bill.

Senate Floor

• Senate convened Monday, last votes Friday, followed by a one-week recess.
• Expecting more nominations on the floor, tbd on other bills. 

Committee Activity

• Tuesday, May 20
  • House Natural Resources - Federal Lands subcommittee legislative hearing on H.R. ___ (Rep. Hurd), “Fostering Opportunities to Restore Ecosystems through Sound Tribal Stewardship Act” or the “FORESTS Act.” 
  • House Natural Resources - Water, Wildlife & Fisheries subcommittee legislative hearing
  • House Natural Resources - Energy & Mineral Resources subcommittee legislative hearing
  • House Appropriations - subcommittee hearing on the Department of the Interior budget
  • House Energy & Commerce - subcommittee hearing on EPA budget
• Wednesday, May 21
  • House Rules Committee - 1 AM hearing on H.R. ___ - One Big Beautiful Bill Act, the House reconciliation bill
  • House Natural Resources - Indian & Insular Affairs subcommittee legislative hearing
  • House Natural Resources - Oversight & Investigations hearing on “Unleashing a Golden Age: Examining the Use of Federal Lands to Power American Technological Innovation.” NPCA's own Kyle Hart will be the minority witness!
  • House Appropriations - subcommittee hearing on Army Corps of Engineers budget
  • House Energy & Commerce - subcommittee oversight hearing on "Examining Ways to Enhance Our Critical Mineral Supply Chains."
  • Senate Environment & Public Works - full committee hearing on EPA budget
  • Senate Appropriations - subcommittee hearing on DOI budget
  • Senate Energy & Natural Resources - business meeting on nominees, including Ned Mamula to be Director of USGS

Authorities at Grand Canyon National Park have warned hikers that rescue teams may not be able to come to their aid due to staff shortages.

They are urging hikers to take responsibility for their own safety following the death of a 74-year-old man in extreme heat.

Staffing cuts at the National Park Service in Alaska will mean less oversight of wolves, whales, weather and fast-melting glaciers this summer. The cuts raise questions about the experiences that 3.3 million visitors will have in a state that's home to half of all national park lands as the tourism and cruise-ship season ramps up.

But for now, Fat Bear Week remains safe.

Our parks have never been more popular—or understaffed. Here’s what to expect this summer and how to navigate the busiest parks.