Throwback Thursday: In 1979, Parks Spent $175K Slush Fund
In 1979, the National Park Service spent $175,000 — $796,647 in 2022 — from a slush fund over three years on entertainment, travel, and other non-budgeted expenses, earning it a Golden Fleece Award from Sen. William Proxmire.
Proxmire, a Democrat from Wisconsin, gave awards to wasteful and nonsensical spending, eventually handing out 168 Golden Fleece Awards between 1975 and 1988.
The $175,000, used 1975 through 1978, paid for a $1,625 reception for the interior secretary, $1,095 for a tent for a congressional breakfast, and almost $5,000 for the president’s visit to Yellowstone National Park (including $317.88 for chicken wire to fence in the Old Faithful geyser, and $172 for box lunches and rooms for White House staff).
The slush fund, called the Director’s Discretionary Fund, was opened in February 1960, and used over the course of six administrations.
The money comes from a .5 percent of sales at vendors in national parks that sell things like literature and maps, something Proxmire took issue with, especially the National Park Service director’s comment that contributions were voluntary.
“It is not a ‘voluntary’ fund,” the senator said. “Contributions are clearly required by the Park Service of its non-profit concessionaires. It’s an assessment or shakedown, not a ‘donation.’”
The fund “is a method of circumventing the official limitations on travel and entertainment imposed by both the Office of Management and Budget and Congress,” Proxmire said. “For example, the official entertainment allowance for the secretary of interior is only $5,000.”
The senator suggested giving the funds from vendors directly to the Treasury, to be dispersed by Congress, instead of allocating the funds outside the federal budget.
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