Trump Administration Proposes Massive Cuts to National Park Service Budget (Again), While Asking for $10 Billion for “Beautification Projects” in Washington, D.C.
Fiscal Year 2027 budget request includes a 26% cut to the NPS operations budget, and 19% cut to its employment budget
“A cut this massive would be catastrophic. This proposal would only accelerate the damage, putting our national parks at even greater risk and further cut the park staffing that is needed to care for our national treasures.” - John Garder, Senior Budget & Appropriations Director at the National Parks Conservation Association
Just like last year’s version, the Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal, released today, Friday, April 3, includes enormous cuts to the budgets of Interior Department agencies.
Across the department, the administration requested a $15.9 billion budget for FY2027. That’s a $2.3 billion—or 12.9 percent—department-wide budget decrease.
There’s more to unpack there than is possible in a single article, so I’m going to focus on the most popular agency in the entire U.S. government: the National Park Service (NPS).
According to a 2024 survey by the Pew Research Center, the National Park Service was the most popular of all federal government agencies.
This year, the Trump administration asked Congress for $2.14 billion for the “Operation of the National Park System.” That includes the management, operation, maintenance, and general administration of all 433 NPS sites.
Simply put, this budget proposal is yet another attempt to gut the National Park Service. It’s a $760 million budget cut. Or a full 26% reduction of the entire NPS budget.
Let’s look at some specific things that really stood out to me in this new NPS budget proposal:
Total “National Recreation and Preservation” budget is cut down to $6 million. This current fiscal year 2026, that budget is estimated to be $92 million. That’s a 93% cut for such things as natural programs, cultural programs, international park affairs, and heritage partnership programs.
The budget for “construction, improvements, repair, or replacement of physical facilities, and compliance and planning” is reduced to $49 million, down from this fiscal year’s estimated $88 million. That’s a 44% cut in the construction budget.
The administration’s NPS budget proposal asked Congress to reauthorize the Legacy Restoration Fund, which funds deferred maintenance on federal public lands at $1.9 billion per year for five years. That fund expired last year. However—and this is a very important detail—the budget focuses on using Land and Water Conservation Fund (LWCF) resources to “acquire conservation easements on State, local, or private lands, rather than continuing the irresponsible and fiscally unsustainable expansion of the Federal estate.”
The administration also indirectly asked Congress to codify its surcharge on international visitors to national parks, which hasn’t happened yet, saying that “[t]o provide a better experience at the Nation’s crown jewel parks for American citizens, the NPS would implement a surcharge on international visitors at the most visited parks that would provide hundreds of millions of dollars to maintain parks around the Nation.”
The Historic Preservation Fund would be absolutely decimated with this NPS budget proposal. Its budget would get cut from $181 million to merely $11 million—a 94% budget reduction.
The Trump administration’s NPS budget proposal includes a $205 million cut to the “total personnel compensation” budget. That’s a 19% cut to the budget that includes all national park employees. You don’t need to be a genius here to conclude that they’re planning on cutting more or less that percentage of actual staff this year, again. After all, Doug Burgum’s department announced a new round of deferred resignations and early retirements just yesterday. Their budget proposal is 100% aligned with that.
“And if the president’s budget wasn’t bad enough,” said Emily Thompson, Executive Director of the Coalition to Protect America’s National Parks, “it comes on top of an announcement yesterday from Secretary Burgum of a new effort to force more critical staff to leave the National Park Service.”
And I saved the “best” one for last:
The Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal also establishes a brand new “Presidential Capital Stewardship Program” within the National Park Service.
What’s the budget President Trump wants for that? you ask. Well, it’s $10 billion dollars—that’s 4.6 times their entire proposed annual National Park Service budget.
According to a fact sheet, these funds would be used to “coordinate, plan, and execute targeted, priority construction and beautification projects in and around Washington, D.C.” No actual details were specified, though. So what do you think that means in practice? A White House ballroom perhaps? Maybe a National Garden of American Heroes? Or could it be a monumental “Arc de Trump?”
Also, if Congress can somehow allocate ten billion dollars for (potential vanity) construction projects in Washington, D.C., wouldn’t you think they could find some money to actually—finally—address the National Park Service’s continuously increasing deferred maintenance backlog?
At the end of Fiscal Year 2024, that maintenance backlog stood at $23 billion. Trump’s “beautification budget” alone would cover almost half of that.
This is all evidence—once again—of the sheer disdain this administration has for one of America’s most beloved agencies, as well as conservation, preservation, history, and the environment in general.
To be clear, the Trump administration’s Fiscal Year 2027 budget proposal is just that: a proposal. This is how they ask Congress for funding for how they think the country should be run.
In practice, however, it works literally the other way around. Congress appropriates budgets and determines how that taxpayer money can be used by an administration.
Last year, Congress decisively and unapologetically rejected basically the Trump administration’s entire Interior Department budget request for this current fiscal year.
Now, with the midterm elections looming, and with Trump’s impressive ongoing efforts to tank his own approval ratings—and let’s just say it: his entire legacy—it’s hard to imagine that Congress will even consider passing this Interior budget.
Still, though, it wouldn’t hurt to remind your Senators and Representative of how much you care about our national parks and public lands, and ask them to ensure their budgets and staff don’t get cut even further.
“As the nation marks its 250th anniversary, the administration is undermining the very places that safeguard our history and heritage,” said John Garder, Senior Director of Budget and Appropriations for the National Parks Conservation Association. “Congress must reject this terrible budget and instead stand up and act for our most treasured places, just as they did last year with strong bipartisan support for our parks. Our national parks are not political pawns. They are part of who we are, and they must be protected now and for generations to come.”
Thanks for reading!
See you on our public lands and waters,
Bram