[Pollinator] Fwd: Washington Post Editorial: Why did national parks close?

[Ladadams at aol.com]

____________________________________
 From: oiea at ios.doi.gov
Sent: 10/18/2013 12:56:08 P.M. Pacific Daylight  Time
Subj: Washington Post Editorial: Why did national parks  close?


We  thought you might want to read the Washington Post Editorial published 
on  October 17th.  


Thank you.


Terri Johnson  
Acting Director, Office of  Intergovernmental & External Affairs
Office of the  Secretary, U.S.  Department of the Interior

 





Washington  Post Editorial:
Why  did national parks close? Ask the Republicans.
 
 
    *   







By _Editorial Board_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/the-posts-view/2011/12/07/gIQAoEIscO_page.html) , Published:  October 17

 
 
 
YOU  MIGHT think that House Republicans would have shown at least a touch 
of  embarrassment after needlessly shutting much of the federal government 
for  more than two weeks. Sadly, that proved not to be the case, as evidenced 
by  Wednesday’s inquisition into the closure of national parks. The 
_spectacle_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/posttv/politics/national-park-service-director-defends-closures/2013/10/16/239518f0-36aa-11e3-89db-8002ba99b894_video.
html)  of a career government official being berated  by Republican members 
of Congress for cuts in service that they had caused  presented a 
nauseating coda to this dispiriting spectacle. 
“What  in the world are we doing here?” was the apt question from Rep. 
Elijah E.  Cummings (D-Md.) at _Wednesday’s joint hearing_ 
(http://oversight.house.gov/release/oversight-natural-resources-to-examine-national-park-services
-closing-of-memorials/)  of the Committee on Oversight  and Government 
Reform and the Committee on Natural Resources. While their  colleagues in the 
Senate were hammering out an agreement to end the shutdown  and avoid default, 
House Republicans were hammering on National Park Services  Director 
_Jonathan B.  Jarvis_ (http://www.doi.gov/whoweare/jonjarvis.cfm) for doing his 
job.
 
Mr. Jarvis, who started his park service as a  seasonal interpreter in 
1976, likely had better things to do, given  that _nearly 87 percent_ 
(http://www.doi.gov/shutdown/fy2014/upload/NPS-contingency-plan.pdf)  of  his agency 
was on furlough. Instead he was subjected to a five-hour hearing in  which 
_he had to explain_ 
(http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Oversight-on-NPS-implementation-of-shutdown-10-16-13.pdf)  the  obvious: No 
money equals no people equals no services.
Most  disturbing were the insinuations by lawmakers that Mr. Jarvis’s 
decisions in  closing the nation’s 401 parks, monuments and other sites were 
unnecessary and  politically motivated to inflict the most pain. “Drastic and 
unprecedented,”  said oversight committee chairman _Darrell Issa_ 
(http://www.politico.com/story/2013/10/memorial-closures-government-shutdown-house-hearin
g-98389.html)  (R-Calif.), while natural resources  chairman _Doc Hastings 
(R-Wash.) said sites were not closed _ 
(http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-250_162-57606887/congress-to-scrutinize-monument-closures-during-government-shutdown/
) by  the Clinton administration during the last shutdown. 
Wrong.  Denis P. Galvin, deputy director of the park service during the 
Reagan,  Clinton and Bush administrations, _said that shutdown plans_ 
(http://oversight.house.gov/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/Galvin-NPCA-Statement-NPS-Shutd
own-10-161.pdf)  — “done hastily, because  you’re always hoping the 
closure won’t happen” — _were in keeping with past practices_ 
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/national/health-science/seven-reasons-why-the-national-parks-serv
ice-closed-the-world-war-ii-memorial/2013/10/15/a3df8584-35d5-11e3-be86-6aea
a439845b_story.html) . In 1995 and 1996, he  said, the Lincoln Memorial was 
closed, as were the Statue of Liberty, the  Gateway Arch in St. Louis and 
other monuments around the country. Indeed, Post  accounts of those shutdowns 
detailed the frustration of tourists who found  monuments and museums 
closed, campers evicted from national parks, the  governor of Arizona ordering 
National Guard troops to the Grand Canyon in an  attempt to keep it open and 
two teams of 7-year-old soccer players evicted  from a national park in 
Anacostia. “The children pleaded. The parents pleaded.  The coach pleaded. The 
answer? Closed,” read a Nov. 20, 1995, article. 
No  doubt there are differences in some restrictions, most notably the use 
this  time of barriers, but there are new security sensibilities in a world 
after  9/11. The park service, largely due to Republican-imposed budget 
constraints,  had lost staff and maintenance funds even before the shutdown. 
Republicans who  suddenly developed such tender concern for the parks would do 
better to ensure  that the government doesn’t close again — and that the 
agency charged with  protecting America’s treasures has the resources it needs 
to serve the  public.







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