{"id":714,"date":"2026-02-15T20:29:00","date_gmt":"2026-02-16T01:29:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/?p=714"},"modified":"2026-05-09T20:31:49","modified_gmt":"2026-05-10T00:31:49","slug":"gsmp-survives-proposed-funding-cuts","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/?p=714","title":{"rendered":"GSMP Survives Proposed Funding Cuts"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure class=\"wp-block-post-featured-image\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1454\" height=\"893\" src=\"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Great-Smoky-Mountains-Winter-2.webp\" class=\"attachment-post-thumbnail size-post-thumbnail wp-post-image\" alt=\"\" style=\"object-fit:cover;\" srcset=\"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Great-Smoky-Mountains-Winter-2.webp 1454w, https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Great-Smoky-Mountains-Winter-2-300x184.webp 300w, https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Great-Smoky-Mountains-Winter-2-1024x629.webp 1024w, https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2026\/05\/Great-Smoky-Mountains-Winter-2-768x472.webp 768w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1454px) 100vw, 1454px\" \/><\/figure>\n\n\n<p>The National Park System remained open and funded thanks to federal appropriations approved Jan. 23, despite a partial government shutdown in early February. The Fiscal Year 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act ensured $2.88 billion in funding for the country\u2019s national parks through the end of FY2026 \u2013 a figure mostly steady with last year\u2019s appropriations.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The appropriations rejected a federal budget plan released last year that would have cut Park Service budgets by about $1 billion. The National Parks Conservation Association estimated those cuts would have eliminated funding and staffing for 350 park sites, reducing the NPS by 75%.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>As written, the text does not prevent future workforce reductions and also reduces maintenance funds systemwide.&nbsp;<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>During a record government shutdown in 2025, local governments including Blount County each contributed about $45,500 a week to keep the Great Smoky Mountains National Park open during peak season.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The National Park System remained open and funded thanks to federal appropriations approved Jan. 23, despite a partial government shutdown in early February. The Fiscal Year 2026 Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act ensured $2.88 billion in funding for the country\u2019s national parks through the end of FY2026 \u2013 a figure mostly steady with [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":715,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_angie_page":false,"page_builder":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[31,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-714","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-great-smoky-mountain-national-park","category-news-briefs"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=714"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":716,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/714\/revisions\/716"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/businessnews.blountcounty.news\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}