Summary: This testimony summarizes two GAO reports (GAO/RCED-93-192, Sept. 1993, and GAO/RCED-94-284, Aug. 1994) on National Park Service employee housing issues. GAO found that the Park Service has not clearly justified the need for all of its employee housing units, nor has it been able to provide detailed support for its backlog of housing repairs and replacements. Individual park managers have broad discretion in carrying out park housing policy, which has resulted in inconsistencies in how the program is managed agencywide and raises questions about whether some housing decisions are in the agency's best interest. Finally, other federal land management agencies, such as the Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management, do not provide the same level of housing to their employees. Because its mission stresses in-park visitor services, the Park Service believes that it needs to provide a larger number of its employees with in-park housing. Moreover, the Park Service's mix of housing units contains more houses, multiplex units, and apartments and fewer dormitories and cabins, making the agency's housing inventory more costly to maintain.
