WASHINGTON, D.C. – During a Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Hearing today, U.S. Senator Angus King (I-Maine) pressed Secretary of the Interior Sally Jewell for answers about the National Park Service’s (NPS) process for awarding concessions contracts, and more specifically, the agency’s decision a year and a half ago to end a longstanding relationship with the Acadia Corporation (Acadia Corp.).

“We had an experience a year or so ago at Acadia national park in Maine – one of the gems of the national park system – where the concession, which had been held by a local company for 80 years, was put out to bid under congressional action,” said Senator King. “What was surprising to me was, apparently, the bid result was strictly a matter of lower price. And past performance, and record of performance, and local impact, and those kinds of things didn’t count…It worries me that a small company is always going to be at a disadvantage to a large, national company with fulltime bid design people, as opposed to people with local knowledge – and again, with a high level of performance. Shouldn’t that be a factor in deciding? When I go to buy a car, I don’t just look at the price, I look at the quality and the past performance of that automobile. Shouldn’t that be part of the process in awarding these contracts?”

Senator King encouraged Secretary Jewell to revisit the process for awarding concessions contracts and offered to work with the Department and the National Park Service to change any statute that restricted NPS from considering important factors like past performance or locality of the companies when ruling on bids.

In November 2013, NPS announced that it had selected a new, out-of-state concessioner at Acadia National Park, ending its relationship with Maine-based The Acadia Corporation (Acadia Corp.), which had for the previous 80 years provided concessions within the park. Following the decision, Senator King and Senator Susan Collins sent a letter to NPS requesting answers about its decision. In a separate letter to the leadership of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources in March 2014, Senator King again expressed his concern for the process that led the agency to end its relationship with Acadia Corp. and asked the committee to review the pending contract and press NPS for answers regarding its selection process.

Senator King’s questioning of Secretary Jewell can be viewed HERE.

Later in the hearing, Senator King also pushed Secretary Jewell to modernize the national parks system by allowing park passes and entry fees to be paid for online and by creating a national park app for smartphones to help facilitate easier park access in today’s digital world.

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