Yesterday was Budget Day, which is one of those big deal days for official Washington that no one else notices. It’s the day when the President formally submits his budget for the next fiscal year to Congress. Sexy, right? If you happen to work for an appropriator or one of the budget watchdog groups, it is. Each Department holds its own budget roll-out event complete with powerpoint, Secretarial speechifying, and usually some sort of bunting; if there was a cheese table and a bar it would be a bona fide party. Think of it as Mardi Gras, except the theme every year is “federal spending.”

DCist happened to attend the Department of the Interior’s budget briefing yesterday, where we learned that the Administration has listed the “National Park Centennial Challenge” as one of its budget priorities for fiscal year 2008. This new project, which intends to improve the Nation’s national parks, monuments, and other historical sites in preparation for the Park Service’s centennial in 2016, comes with a large increase in spending: $290 million more than the current funding level. Plus, given our high concentration of Park sites, a good chunk of those funds will be coming home to D.C.: $3.95 million more that the last enacted funding level, just for parks in the District. That doesn’t even include system-wide improvements that will benefit D.C. as well.

Photo from flickr user dbking.

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