WASHINGTON — A House panel Wednesday will grill the head of the National Park Service about why the White House chose to barricade open-air monuments and close privately owned parks during the government shutdown.
“The Obama administration is taking advantage of every opportunity to make this shutdown as painful as possible,” said House Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.), who is holding a joint hearing with the House Oversight Committee to demand answers from Park Service Director Jonathan Jarvis.
“The Obama administration is arbitrarily and inconsistently barricading open spaces, restricting access to privately operated facilities within the forests, and wildlife refuges, and hurting small businesses that do not rely on federal funds to operate,” he said.
“Many of these places were not barricaded during the last government shutdown 17 years ago.”
The committees point to a series of actions they say were intended only to inflict pain:
- Erecting barricades around popular open-air monuments such as the Lincoln Memorial and World War II Memorial, which are usually open 24/7 and only staffed by Park Rangers part time.
- Closing the entire Cape Hatteras National Seashore in North Carolina, including a fishing pier and several businesses located on the federal property.
The panel also will hear testimony from people affected by the administration’s sweeping shutdown policy.“You do have to wonder about the wisdom of an organization that would use staff they don’t have the money to pay to evict visitors from a park site that operates without costing them any money,” Eberly told the Washington Free Beacon.