The National Park Service (NPS) has a multibillion-dollar backlog of deferred maintenance—maintenance that was not performed as scheduled or as needed and was put off to a future time. NPS’s deferred maintenance, also known as deferred maintenance and repairs or the maintenance backlog, was estimated for FY2025 at $24.237 billion. Other federal land management agencies also have deferred maintenance, but NPS’s backlog is the largest and has drawn the most congressional attention. During the past decade (FY2016-FY2025), NPS deferred maintenance grew by $12.906 billion (+114%) in nominal dollars and $7.263 billion (+43%) in inflation-adjusted dollars. Many factors might contribute to the growth or reduction of deferred maintenance, including the aging of NPS assets, availability of funding for maintenance activities, acquisition of new assets, agency management of the backlog, completion of individual projects, changes in construction and related costs, and alterations in the methods used to estimate deferred maintenance. NPS reported that a 60% nominal-dollar increase in the backlog between FY2020 and FY2021 was due in part to changes in how the agency estimates deferred maintenance. NPS’s deferred maintenance is distributed unevenly among states and territories, with California, the District of Columbia, Arizona, and Wyoming having the largest amounts. The amounts also vary among individual park units. Among the various types of assets that NPS maintains, deferred maintenance is highest for the agency’s paved roads and buildings. Sources of funding to address NPS deferred maintenance have included discretionary and mandatory appropriations, allocations from the Department of Transportation, park entrance and concessions fees, and donations, among others. Often it is not possible to determine the total amount of funding from these sources that NPS has allocated each year to address deferred maintenance, because NPS does not aggregate these amounts in its budget reporting. In 2020, the Great American Outdoors Act (GAOA; P.L. 116-152) provided a major new source of mandatory funding to address deferred maintenance of NPS and other federal land management agencies. The GAOA’s National Parks and Public Land Legacy Restoration Fund (LRF) received $1.9 billion annually for five years (FY2021-FY2025), with 70% of the funds—approximately $1.3 billion annually—going to NPS. In the 119th Congress, H.R. 9250 and S. 1547 would reauthorize deposits to the fund for FY2027-FY2031. For more information, see CRS Insight IN12729, Legacy Restoration Fund for Deferred Maintenance: 119th Congress Reauthorization Bills. Congressional attention in the 118th and 119th Congresses has focused on NPS’s use of the LRF funding provided under the GAOA, including the agency’s project selection priorities, the funds’ impact in addressing the backlog, the reasons for changes in NPS’s deferred maintenance estimates, and proposals to reauthorize deposits to the LRF. Separately from the LRF, Congress also has debated the sufficiency of ongoing annual appropriations for NPS deferred maintenance, as well as appropriations for preventive maintenance that could keep assets from deteriorating to the point that deferred maintenance is accrued. Some in Congress also have expressed interest in potential actions to reduce the backlog without additional funding, such as through public-private partnerships or disposal of unneeded assets.
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