Advocacy update: working with federal agencies: park and recreation advocates should tap into administrative law to accomplish policy priorities.

NRPA's national agenda for parks and recreation impacts policymakers in a variety of ways. We not only advocate for specific legislation on Capitol Hill, but we promote the benefits of parks and recreation before the various federal agencies, such as the National Park Service and even the Department of Labor.

Many of our advocates are solid allies and key players in our legislative battles to further and improve upon statutory law. However, there is another aspect of the law that remains relatively untapped by the park and recreation community on the national level--administrative law.

NRPA's Division of Public Policy generates awareness and support for park and recreation issues with federal agencies that create the complex system of administrative law. It's this law that guides and directs most of our nation's policies, created by administrative agencies in the form of rules, regulations, procedures, orders and decisions. The various federal agencies have different missions and different kinds of authority, allowing them to adapt to an ever-changing political environment. Nearly everything from the U.S. government is filtered through the bureaucracy.

NRPA has just begun to engage this bureaucracy on the policy level. In early 2005, we responded to the Department of Justice's rulemaking on the revised guidelines implementing the Americans with Disabilities Act of 1990 (ADA) and the Architectural Barriers Act of 1968 (ABA). NRPA also responded to the Department of Education's decision to create regulations to implement programs under the recently amended Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).

One of our most recent policy victories occurred as a result of our successful work with federal agency officials working to revise a fact sheet. Fact sheets are typically issued by an agency to clarify and sometimes enforce aspects of the law. At first, it sounds like this is an obscure action and one that wouldn't occupy a lot of time of our staff.

However, the ripple effects of the revision would have had long-term and potentially detrimental impacts on the basic operation of our members' aquatic facilities.

As such, the Public Policy Division launched into action and began a seven-month campaign to work with the Department of Labor in an effort to achieve a re-interpretation of the law that would equate to a policy victory for NRPA members.

It is first necessary to provide some background on this policy issue. In June 2005, the U.S. Department of Labor issued a fact sheet indicating that the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) prohibits 15-year-olds from working as lifeguards at pools featuring "elevated slides, artificial waves, or other amusement-type 'rides' or mechanical devices." This clarification essentially forbade the employment of 15-year-old lifeguards at waterparks unless they were working in a "traditional swimming pool."

NRPA was particularly concerned with the vague definition given in Fact Sheet #60 for a "traditional swimming pool." The definition provided was open to interpretation; therefore, its application to pools that might be operated by park and recreation agencies was somewhat unclear.

Our first step in working on this policy issue was to meet with agency officials. We had multiple objectives in conversing with the Department of Labor. We wanted to present our arguments as a coalition, representing both public and private operators of aquatic facilities around the country.

Second, we wanted to find out why the department was so dramatically revising their fact sheet, especially at the onset of the swimming season. Third, we wanted to convey to the department that we too have the safety of our employees and patrons at the forefront of our minds.

Finally, our main policy objective was to seek some clarification from the agency as to the parameters of the restrictions and to ultimately secure approval from the agency that 15-year-olds are indeed qualified to lifeguard, at least under some conditions and in some arenas.

Our next step was to arrange a site visit to show the Department of Labor officials the types of duties that 15-year-old lifeguards perform and to show them all of the different types of waterpark features at issue. We coordinated with our coalition partners--the International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions, the World Waterpark Association and the American Red Cross--to host agency representatives at a waterpark facility of an NRPA member.

This meeting provided department officials with an opportunity to observe and learn about the work of lifeguards at a waterpark, and to better understand some of the operating features of a waterpark. Department officials were appreciative of the meeting, indicating that they would consider changes to Fact Sheet #60 as a result.

News that our efforts had paid off came in January. The department issued a compliance letter to clarify its enforcement position on the employment of 15-year-old lifeguards to allow more widespread employment than agency guidance had previously allowed. The final ruling declared that trained and certified 15-year-olds are permitted to work as lifeguards at most facilities in a waterpark. Specifically, 15-year-olds are not permitted to work as dispatchers or attendants at the top of water slides, but can work as lifeguards in other areas.

This success is just one example of a method of achieving positive public policy results with a federal agency. Sometimes it is necessary to engage in the formal rulemaking process to effect change--as we hope to do with our work on the Department of Justice's rulemaking concerning the ADA implementation. Other times, it is feasible to effect change on the regulatory enforcement level as we did with our work on Fact Sheet #60.

NRPA's Division of Public Policy recognizes the myriad of tools available to federal agencies to impact the daily operation of our members' facilities, programs and services. We will continue to engage the various federal agencies to advance our mission to advance parks, recreation and environmental conservation efforts that enhance the quality of life for all people.

ACTION ALERT

Get engaged with the Public Policy Division's work on pending rulemakings. Offer your expertise to help craft our response to federal agencies.

Keep us informed of your work with state-level regulators. Sometimes the federal agencies issue guidance that is interpreted differently by their state-level counterparts.

Become connected with NRPA's RecreAction--this is our network where we can receive input from the state and local level on issues of national importance. Our advocacy can be directed towards Congress, the Executive Branch and federal agencies.

Monica Hobbs Vinluan, J.D., is the senior policy associate .for health and wellness issues for NRPA's Division of Public Policy. She has more than six years of legislative and policy advocacy experience, working on various health promotion issues.