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    "label": "Letter to Richard Powers From Dr. Dr. Robert J. Kapsch Providing Copy of Article, \"National Park Service's Winter of Discontent,\" February 3, 2004",
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    "title": "Letter to Richard Powers From Dr. Dr. Robert J. Kapsch Providing Copy of Article, \"National Park Service's Winter of Discontent,\" February 3, 2004",
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    "ocrText": "February 3, 2004\nMr. Richard Powers\n(b) (6)\nBurke, Virginia 22015\nRichard,\nI thought you would be interested in the enclosed article on the National Park Service.\n\"National Park Service's Winter of Discontent,\" recently published in Preservation\nNews. Since I can't imagine that you subscribe to Preservation News, I thought you\nwould like to receive a copy.\nIt is a curious article. The thesis is that the National Park Service is suffering at the hands\nof the insensitive Bush Administration. Bill Wade is quoted as saying, \"It has never\nbeen this bad.\"\nBut what is curious about the article is that the \"evidence\" used to back up the thesis\nseems so paltry. A few examples:\nThe author cites the unfunded $4.9 or $6.8 billion backlog of maintenance\nprojects. Of course you and I know that the mythical maintenance backlog has\nbeen used for at least twenty-five years, maybe longer, to indicate what bad shape\nthe Park Service is in. We never get anywhere close to that number yet the Park\nService seems to survive. Even if we received a small fraction of that amount we\nwouldn't have the professional staff to effectively utilize it (as in the need to have\ncompetent staff to plan, design, advertise, supervise the use of that money).\nRoger Kennedy is cited as an authority on how the current Administration is\nneglecting science. However, as a Clinton nominee, it seems to me somewhat\ndisingenuous for him to criticize this Administration when it was Clinton's\nSecretary of Interior Babbitt's actions that led to the wholesale dismembering of\nthe existing science initiatives within the Park Service (albeit at the hands of a\nRepublican Congress). Kennedy is quoted as saying, \"They (the Bush\nAdministration) don't trust the professionals.\" But it was Kennedy's\nreorganization of 1985 that led a wholesale attack on the professionals.\nOut-sourcing is mentioned. But the example given is the Western Archeological\nCenter. Probably this is the one organization within the Park Service where we\nwould get the greatest agreement amongst Park Service managers that staff of this\nCenter should be out-sourced. There are general arguments to be made against\nout-sourcing (such that it would close an avenue where minorities could begin\ntheir careers and advance to higher levels of responsibility within the Park\nService), but they are not made in this article.\nAnyway, enjoy the article. Deny Galvin is quoted on page 30."
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