BILLINGS, Mont. – With the nation’s 250th birthday only months away, National Park Service workers got an unexpected message from Washington: maintenance projects already cleared for this year at parks and historic sites around the country were being shifted onto a newly created “low priority” list.
Projects favored by the White House moved ahead of them, including work on the Lincoln Memorial Reflecting Pool, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press and three National Park Service and Interior Department officials who spoke anonymously because they were not authorized to discuss the matter publicly.
Those reflecting pool repairs, along with other work connected to President Donald Trump’s Freedom 250 initiative, were placed on a separate list reserved for White House priorities, the records show. Many of the administration-supported projects have moved forward, although the reflecting pool work was mishandled.
At the same time, officials said nearly all of the roughly 1,500 maintenance and related projects that remained on the low priority list as of last month are likely to be left unfinished. The delay threatens to deepen the National Park Service’s repair backlog, which has climbed to more than $24 billion over the past decade as park visitation has grown sharply.
The deferred work covers more than 200 park sites and includes a broad mix of needs, from roof repairs at Golden Gate National Recreation Area to computer upgrades at Katmai National Park in Alaska. It also includes basic supply purchases such as toilet paper and garbage bags for Yellowstone National Park.
Because the projects were labeled low priority — and with the federal fiscal year closing on Sept. 30 — two officials said it remains unclear when, or whether, the work will proceed unless park employees can identify another way to fund or contract it.
National Park Service staff “were told to not expect anything on the low priority list to be contracted,” one official said.
“The first priority was White House priorities,” the official added. “Anywhere that is 250th-related they would have been diverting resources, some it probably planned but a lot of it pushed by the administration.”
The Interior Department said many entries on the low priority list had been “mis-prioritized and were corrected.” It declined to say how many or which ones, or how much parks are spending on projects outside Washington. Agency officials declined to answer questions about the reflecting pool.
Congress has pushed to fix maintenance backlog
The park service has a third list for “high priority” projects that includes more than 2,000 items, many with contracts awarded or in process, the documents show.
“In any year, the National Park Service must prioritize projects most in need,” Interior spokesperson Katie Martin wrote in a statement. “The National Park Service has not only been focused on beautifying the district for the 250th celebrations in our nation’s capital but has also been working on many deferred maintenance projects throughout the country.”
The 1,500 low priority projects had a combined cost estimate of more than $400 million.
Maine Independent Sen. Angus King, the ranking member of the Senate’s National Parks Subcommittee, said the administration’s pursuits around Washington “are more aesthetic than strictly necessary,” even as they siphon resources from sites elsewhere in the U.S.
“I don’t object to setting priorities,” King said in an interview. “I object to the White House priority list being tacked onto the top of that pyramid.”
He added it could lead to “the deterioration of America’s gems” as things like sanitation upgrades and basic maintenance don’t happen.
Congress during both Democratic and Republican presidencies has pushed to address the backlog. The bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act in 2020 included $6.5 billion for maintenance and repairs through 2025. A legislative extension is pending.
Testing the park service’s mission
The priority designations came from park service headquarters in Washington, according to documents obtained by AP and one of the unnamed officials.
The park service appears to be moving forward on at least $80 million in White House priorities, including $52 million awarded, the documents indicate. Much of that work was championed by Trump and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, such as the reflecting pool repairs and the rehabilitation of other parks in the capital with an eye toward the 250th celebrations.
Trump announced his plans to paint the Reflecting Pool blue in April, aiming to address longstanding problems at the site before July 4. But the $16 million initiative faced immediate problems, including peeling sealant and a fierce return of green algae.
Not all of the administration’s priorities advanced: A $70 million line item for “turf maintenance” over five years at parks in the Washington, D.C., area is among more than $80 million in work marked as “canceled” in the Interior Department data.
The park service’s mission has been tested under Trump as its employees navigate new realities. It lost at least one-quarter of its permanent workforce under Trump.
Remaining employees have been ordered to revise exhibits that Trump said advanced “improper ideology,” and demolish the East Wing of the White House, which is under park stewardship, for the creation of a ballroom. Trump also reduced Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments in Utah as Republicans reshape public lands management.
Contracting officers in short supply
Pressure to deliver on administration demands for Freedom 250 was compounded by staffing cuts that made it harder to execute contracts, the unnamed officials said.
Prior to Trump’s second term, the parks had 275 contracting officers. They’ve since been consolidated into the Interior Department, which nevertheless saw its contracting workforce drop more than 20%, public records show.
About $140 million has been obligated or spent by the park service in Washington, D.C., this year, according to public data. That includes the reflecting pool work and the rehabilitation of fountains across the district.
Interior spokesperson Martin said the Trump administration is eyeing different revenue sources for maintenance including endowments and park pass sales.
Those sales rose more than $2 million, to $16.7 million, in the first quarter of 2026 compared to a year earlier, she said.
