Statement of
Robert G. Stanton
Deputy
Assistant Secretary for Policy and Program Management
Department of
the Interior
on
S.1442, The
Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2009
Energy and
natural Resources Subcommittee on
United States
Senate
October 29,
2009
Mr. Chairman, thank you for the opportunity to appear before
your committee to present the views of the Department of the Interior on S.
1442, a bill that would amend the Public Lands Corps Act of 1993 to expand the
authorization of the Secretaries of the Interior, Agriculture and Commerce to
provide service-learning opportunities on public lands, help restore the Nation’s
natural, cultural, historic, archaeological, recreational and scenic resources,
train a new generation of public land managers and enthusiasts, and promote the
value of public service.
The Department strongly supports S. 1442. This bill would strengthen and facilitate the
use of the Public Land Corps (PLC) program, helping to fulfill the vision that
Secretary Salazar has for promoting ways to engage young people across
Engaging America’s
Youth Through Service
While there are other Federal programs that promote service, expanding
the use of the Public Land Corps could be a particularly important part of our
overall strategy for increasing opportunities and incentives for young people
to become involved because this program serves other high-priority goals as
well. Through it, we could reconnect
young people with their natural environment and cultural heritage; make
progress on energy conservation and the use of alternative sources of energy;
and provide education, training, and career-building experiences--and a pathway
to careers in Federal land management agencies, which are in serious need of
new, younger employees.
Secretary Salazar created the Youth in Natural Resources
program during his tenure at the Colorado Department of Natural Resources as a
way to educate thousands of young people about
Background on
The Department regards the Public Land Corps program as an
important and successful example of civic engagement and conservation. Authorized by the National and Community
Service Trust Act on in 1993, the program uses non-profit organizations such as the Student
Conservation Association (SCA) and other service and conservation corps
organizations affiliated with the Corps Network as the primary partners in
administering the Public Land Corps program.
In addition, other non-profit youth organizations such as the YMCA also
participate, as do local high schools and job-training youth organizations. The youth organizations assist the National
Park Service (NPS) in its efforts to attract diverse participants to the parks
by recruiting youth 16-25 years of age from all socioeconomic, cultural and
ethnic backgrounds.
The National Park Service makes extensive use of the PLC
program. Projects are funded through
recreational fee revenue, with the typical project receiving $25,000 from NPS
plus a 25 percent match from a partner organization. NPS spent $4.1 million on
the program in FY 2008, which funded about 1,500 young men and women working on
178 projects at 99 park units. Most PLC
projects at parks are designed to address maintenance and ecological
restoration needs. The NPS also conducts
other youth service and conservation projects at larger parks which are funded
out of the parks’ own budgets.
NPS also spent more than $3 million on the Youth Conservation
Corps program which is a summer employment program for 15-18 year old
youth. NPS in fiscal year 2008 employed
833 youth to work on conservation projects across the country. The YCC program has been administered by the
National Park Service since 1974.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) and the U.S. Fish and
Wildlife Service (FWS) have a long history of employing youth service and
conservation corps participants from the SCA, Youth Conservation Corps and
other organizations for a wide array of projects related to public lands
resource enhancement and facility maintenance.
Though most corps are affiliated with the nationwide Corps Network, they
are often administered at the state, rather than national level. For example, the FWS and SCA have partnered
for over 20 years to offer work and learning opportunities to students. In FY 2007, 122 Conservation Interns served
at 45 FWS sites in 24 states, contributing more than 80,000 hours of work.
The BLM has engaged the services of SCA interns for many
years under a longstanding national assistance agreement, then under individual
state agreements. In 2006, the last year of BLM’s national agreement, a total
of 116 SCA members served at 16 BLM sites in eight states. The interns
participated in a variety of conservation service activities such as recreation
and river management, historic building restoration and maintenance, seed
collection, and invasive species control.
BLM’s Salem Oregon District, for example, hires a mixture of Northwest
Youth Corps,
The FWS manages 587 units of the National
Wildlife Refuge System that cover over 150 million acres, as well as 70
National Fish Hatcheries, which would directly benefit from programs authorized
under S. 1442. National Wildlife Refuges
and National Fish Hatcheries enjoy strong relationships with the local
communities in which they are located, and are involved in many community-based
projects that help maintain sustainable landscapes. The FWS’s work is also supported by over 200
non-profit Friends organizations that assist in offering quality education
programs, mentoring, and work experience for youth.
In 2007, the FWS employed 496 Youth Conservation
Corps enrollees and 177 individuals through the Student Conservation
Association program. Last year, over 39,000
volunteers contributed their time and talents to a variety of programs
including support for youth education projects.
Over the past two years the FWS has provided funding for a YCC program
involving the Mescalero Apache youth at the Mescalero Tribal Hatchery in
The Public Lands Service Corps Act of 2009
S. 1442 would make several administrative and programmatic
changes that, in our view, would strengthen and improve the Public Land Corps Act. These changes would encourage broader agency use
of the program, make more varied opportunities available for young men and
women, and provide more support for participants during and after their
service. Appropriately, S. 1442 would change
the program’s name to Public Lands Service
Corps, reflecting the emphasis on “service” that is the hallmark of the program. President Obama is committed to providing
young people with greater opportunities and incentives to serve their community
and country. Through an enhanced Public
Lands Service Corps, we would be taking a critical first step that
direction.
Key changes that the legislation would make to existing law
include:
·
Adding
the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which administers national
marine sanctuaries, as an agency authorized to use the program;
·
Establishing
an Indian Youth Corps so Indian Youth can benefit from Corps programs based on
Indian lands, carrying out projects that their tribes and communities determine
to be priorities;
·
Authorizing
a departmental-level office at the Department of the Interior to coordinate
Corps activities within the three land management bureaus;
·
Requiring
each of the three relevant departments to undertake or contract for a recruiting
program for the Corps;
·
Requiring
each of the three relevant departments to establish a training program for
Corps members, and identifying specific components the training must include;
·
Identifying
more specific types of projects that could be conducted under this authority;
·
Allowing
participants in other volunteer programs to participate in PLC projects;
·
Allowing
agencies to make arrangements with other Federal, state, or local agencies, or
private organizations, to provide temporary housing for Corps members;
·
Providing
explicit authority for the establishment of residential conservation centers,
and authorizing the Secretary to seek the assistance of the Secretary of Energy
in identifying and using solar and other green building technologies that may be adapted for these facilities;
·
Authorizing
agencies to recruit experienced volunteers from other programs to serve as
mentors to Corps members;
·
Adding
“consulting intern” as a new category of service employment under the PLC
program;
·
Allowing
agencies to apply a cost-of-living differential in the provision of living
allowances and to reimburse travel expenses;
·
Allowing
agencies to provide noncompetitive hiring status for Corps members for two
years after completing service, rather than only 120 days, if certain terms are
met;
·
Allowing
agencies to provide job and education counseling, referrals, and other
appropriate services to Corps members who have completed their service; and
·
Eliminating
the $12 million authorization ceiling for the program.
We believe that the Department’s program would benefit from
enactment of this legislation. As noted
above, most PLC projects at national parks are designed to address maintenance and
ecological restoration needs, and those types of projects would continue to be
done under S. 1442. However, this
legislation specifies a broader range of potential projects, making it likely
that Corps members could become involved in such varied activities as historical
and cultural research, museum curatorial work, oral history projects and
programs, documentary photography, public information and orientation services
that promote visitor safety, and activities that support the creation of public
works of art. Participants might assist
employees in the delivery of interpretive or educational programs and create
interpretive products such as website content, Junior Ranger program books,
printed handouts, and audiovisual programs.
PLC participants would also be able to work for a park
partner organization where the work might involve sales, office work,
accounting, and management, so long as the work experience is directly related
to the protection and management of public lands. The NPS and the FWS have a large number of
partner organizations that would be potential sponsors of young people
interested in the type of work they might offer.
An important change for the Department is the addition of
specific authority for agencies to pay transportation expenses for non-residential
Corps members. Transportation costs may
be a limiting factor in program participation of economically disadvantaged
young people.
Another important change is the addition of “consulting
intern” as a new category of service employment under the PLC program,
expanding on the use of mostly college-student “resource assistants,” provided
for under existing law. The consulting interns would be graduate students who
would help agencies carry out management analysis activities. NPS has successfully used business and public
management graduate student interns to write business plans for parks for
several years, and this addition would bring these interns under the PLC
umbrella.
The Public Lands Service Corps would also offer
agencies the ability to hire successful corps members non-competitively at the
end of their appointment, which would provide the agency with an influx of
knowledgeable employees as well as career opportunities for those interested in
the agencies’ mission. Refuges and hatcheries, for example,
are uniquely qualified to connect with local
communities since the Service has so many refuges across the country that are
located near smaller communities and can directly engage urban, inner city, and
rural youth. For example, partnering academic institutions could offer educational
programs to enhance the students’ work experience, thereby providing
orientation and exposure to a broad range of career options.
The legislation would also give the Department’s other
bureaus that would utilize this program the authority to expand the scope of
existing corps programs to reflect modern day challenges, such as climate
change and add incentives to attract new participants, especially from
underrepresented populations.
An expanded Public Lands Service Corps program would provide more opportunities
for thousands of young Americans to participate in public service while we address
the critical maintenance, restoration, repair and rehabilitation needs on our
public lands and gain a better understanding of the impacts of climate change
on these treasured landscapes.
Recommended Changes to
S.1442
While we are very supportive of S.1442, there are few areas
we would like to suggest some changes. We
would be happy to work with the committee to develop technical amendments and
changes in the following areas:
· Cost sharing for nonprofit organizations contributing to expenses of resource assistants and consulting interns: Under current law in the case of resource assistants, and under S. 1442 in the case of consulting interns, sponsoring organizations are required to cost-share the expenses of providing and supporting these individuals from “private sources of funding” – 25 percent for resource assistants and 10 percent for consulting interns. The administration recommends leveling this cost-requirement to 25 percent for both categories of participants with an additional provision to give agencies the ability to reduce the non-Federal contribution to no less than 10 percent, but only when the Secretary determines it is necessary to enable a greater range of organizations, such as smaller, community-based organizations that draw from low-income and rural populations, to participate in the PLSC program.
·
Benefits
for consulting interns: The
Department recommends clarifying amendments to include consulting interns as
the third type of corps member who are eligible for living allowances; national
service educational awards and forbearance in the collection of
· Hiring Preference: It is unclear whether resource assistance would qualify for the provision of credit for time served with the Public Lands Service Corps for future federal hiring. We recommend that this language be clarified to ensure resource assistants are made eligible for these benefits.
Second, S.1422 provides that former PLSC members would be eligible for noncompetitive hiring status for up to two years. The Administration opposes eligibility for up to two years because the service requirements for this program are minimal. Therefore, we recommend making eligibility status one year, which is consistent with other Government-wide, non-competitive appointment authorities based on service outside of the Federal government.
The Department further suggests including language to ensure that time these former Corps members (both types) spent as full-time students does not accrue against the time period they have to use their noncompetitive hiring status. That way, college students who served in the Corps during the summer, for example, would be able to use their time period of noncompetitive status after they graduate from college.
While we support the noncompetitive hiring authority for
all the different types of PLSC participants, we recommend including language
to ensure that the participants have documented work experience within a
legitimate program in order to be eligible for this authority. In the case of youth serving on PLSC projects
though outside organizations, this could be achieved by specifying that the
participants need to achieve the requisite hours of work within qualified youth
or conservation corps programs as defined in Section 203 of the Act.
· Agreements with Partners on Training and Employing Corps Members: Finally, we recommend striking the provision in S.1422 that would allow PLSC members to receive federally funded stipends and other PLSC benefits while working directly for non-Federal third parties. The need for this language is unclear, since agencies already have flexibility in how they coordinate work with cooperating associations, educational institutes, friends groups, or similar non-profit partnership organizations. Yet, the language could raise unanticipated concerns over accountability, liability, and conflicts of interest. For example, this language could allow an individual to receive a federally funded stipend under a PLSC agreement, and then perform work for a different non-federal group (such as a cooperating association) that is subject to agency oversight under different agreements. This language could blur the lines of responsibility that have been established in response to IG concerns over the management of cooperating associations and friends groups.
Mr. Chairman, that concludes my remarks. I would be happy to answer any questions you
or the other members of the subcommittee have.