Political Reviews Are Causing a Huge Grant Backlog at the National Park Service

Hundreds of millions of dollars in National Park Service funding is sitting in limbo at the Department of Interior, awaiting a political review that longtime agency staff say has put a stranglehold on the agency’s work.

The park service is currently experiencing a backlog of 1,400 active grants pending approval as of early June, according to information from an internal database provided to NOTUS.

Those awards are worth $362 million and include projects such as deploying nonprofit youth programs to clear trails, sending groups to prevent washouts in parks during persistent rain and surveying wildlife. Interior employees and grant recipients cautioned that prescribed burns and fuels reduction ahead of wildfire season could also get stuck in the backlog. An NPS grants employee said there were fewer than 10 active grants backlogged in the system two years ago.

The grants are being held up in a process that resembles the widely panned approval system at the Department of Homeland Security under former Secretary Kristi Noem’s leadership, which required her signature on all grants worth more than $100,000. Noem’s replacement, Secretary Markwayne Mullin, undid that policy when he assumed the role.

The Interior Department, however, has only reinforced its political review process, according to documents obtained by NOTUS and several employees familiar with the matter, three of whom said the issue has become worse in recent months.

At NPS, all grants valued at least at $50,000 must go through two political appointees — the assistant secretary for policy, management and budget and the assistant secretary for fish, wildlife and parks — for approval before the agency awards them. That process follows an internal review by NPS leadership.

In an early June email to grants management staff, one official described the process as adding new layers that “explains why reviews have been taking longer.” Another official described the process as “updates” to and reminders of the current Interior review process.

The Department of Government Efficiency first set up a $50,000 review threshold last year for all grants and for cooperative agreements, which are legal partnerships between the park service and states, tribes and nonprofits. Some version of that review has remained in place since DOGE officials departed Interior last year, three employees and two NPS grant recipients told NOTUS.

But one staffer described the recent mandatory inclusion of two assistant secretaries for all approvals at that level as “a big step up” from previous policy.

As a result, the backlog of grants has built up under President Donald Trump and accelerated in recent weeks. One park service official told NOTUS that over the past year, several organizations that depend on agency funding have warned that they are at risk of layoffs and possible closure when grants are delayed.

An official at a nonprofit organization that relies on NPS grants also said it experienced no delays in receiving funds under past administrations, but the wait times have jumped because of the added layers of review.

That person said the changes affected groups selected to work on projects across Interior’s purview, such trail maintenance, boardwalk repairs at Fish and Wildlife Service refuges, specialized masonry and woodworking for historic preservation, invasive species removal and even preparations for wildfire season.

“It can make the lead time very short, or make it so you can’t do the project,” the nonprofit official said.

A U.S. Geological Survey employee said the reviews at their agency, which have been in place since last year, have bogged down processing so significantly that there are concerns that funds will expire and be returned to the U.S. Treasury before they’re spent. Congress appropriated some money to USGS in fiscal year 2025 on a two-year basis, meaning it is set to expire this September.

The guidance from earlier this month instructed employees to describe “tangible benefits to parks” when making a request and to describe links to applicable presidential and secretarial priorities to justify the spending. Employees can submit their requests for awards up the chain once a week and were instructed to spell out all acronyms.

Trump signed an executive order last year requiring more political oversight of the grant-making process across government. Last month, the Office of Management and Budget proposed codifying the mandate that senior political appointees review any potential award for compliance with “the president’s policy priorities” and that they avoid any diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives.

While that rule is for now still a proposal, OMB has already been forcing the park service to explain how grant programs align with Trump administration priorities in order to get funding, according to the federal apportionments database.

Jeff Mow, who spent more than two decades as an NPS superintendent, most recently leading Glacier National Park, said large, congressionally funded projects in parks often require groundwork and consultations with partners to help the agency carry them out. He said the political reviews would likely slow that type of work to a crawl.

“It will bog the system down, to have a pile of these on someone’s desk to just sit there,” Mow said.

Interior is managing its grants backlog with a significantly reduced staff. The agency shed 13,000 employees last year, or 20% of its workforce, including 4,000 workers at NPS. The department has also consolidated grants management and several other back-end functions away from individual bureaus and into Secretary Doug Burgum’s office.

In a statement, an Interior spokesperson said Trump was elected with a mandate to bring accountability to the federal government and the department’s changes would “streamline internal processes” and “reduce unnecessary bureaucracy.”

“Reviewing significant expenditures before funds are obligated is a common-sense stewardship measure that taxpayers expect from their government,” the spokesperson said. “The real question isn’t why Interior is reviewing taxpayer-funded expenditures. The real question is why anyone would object to making sure taxpayer dollars are spent responsibly.”

DHS drew significant bipartisan pushback when Noem required her signoff for any spending above $100,000. The review process caused significant delays in releasing much-needed disaster aid in the aftermath of Hurricane Helene and other major natural disasters, frustrating federal employees and infuriating lawmakers from the affected congressional districts, NOTUS previously reported. Sometimes critical Federal Emergency Management Agency contracts, lost in the review process, expired before they could be renewed.

Mullin quickly limited his reviews of spending to contracts worth more than $25 million.