National parks sit on edge of 'fiscal cliff'

The National Parks Service has three budget possibilities for 2013.

None look good.

The supplemental budget Congress passed in September only funds day-to-day operations until March 27. If nothing is done before then, the service’s finances will remain precarious at least until spring.

Second is a slapdash budget lawmakers hope to piece together before the end of the year.

The labors of the U.S. Senate and U.S. House on an omnibus spending bill are being called a fool’s errand by skeptics in Washington. House Speaker John Boehner says reaching a bargain with six weeks remaining in the year could be capricious. But the fear of falling over the so-called “fiscal cliff” put lawmakers to work before the lame duck-session begins after Thanksgiving. Deep cuts to Park Service spending are inevitable in whatever Congress proposes in the coming weeks. Anything, though, would be better than the third option: sequestration.