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Traveler's View: There's No Lack Of GOP Chutzpa In The House When It Comes To National Parks

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In their latest effort to stir the National Park Service pot, 94 Republicans in the House of Representatives are striving to redefine "chutzpa."

Despite the estimated loss of at least $76 million a day in tourism-related business across the country, the furlough of more than 20,000 Park Service employees and hundreds more non-profit employees, and the ruination of countless vacations, the 93 members led by Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Michigan, are fretting over how many rangers it takes to keep the World War II Memorial on the National Mall open. Or should that be closed?

Really!

Not surprisingly, considered his unabashed rant against a park ranger in front of the memorial last week, Rep. Randy Neugebauer, R-Texas, is among the signatories.

So, too, is Rep. Michelle Bachmann, the Minnesota Republican who, before she was frighteningly concerned with pinching federal pennies, pushed an earmark through Congress to spend an estimated 200,000,000 federal dollars on a bridge across the St. Croix National Scenic Riverway. It was a project that four times the Park Service refused to permit because of the Wild and Scenic Rivers Act, as the St. Croix carries a wild and scenic designation, and which some thought was unneeded and unaffordable.

These 94 are in a tizzy over the barricades the Park Service erected around the World War II Memorial and other memorials on the Mall. They want Park Service Director Jon Jarvis to take a head count of rangers staffing the World War II Memorial and report back to them on whether the seven sighted there the other day was six too many (see attachment). Or maybe even seven too many.

They also want to know why the Park Service changed the wording on signs "placed at each of the closed memorials" from ones bearing the NPS logo to ones without the logo. Oh, and Mr. Director, please tell us how much it cost to make the switch.

Incredible.

We have small businesses that count on strong October tourism dollars to get them through the winter months that are losing tens of thousands of dollars, concessionaires that are losing almost $1 million a day for every day the parks are closed (let's see, today's October 10, so that's a tidy $10 million), and Rep. Huizenga and his co-signers are worried about printing costs for a few dozen signs.

We have had visitors from Japan, Australia, and China (and no doubt other countries) making once-in-a-lifetime visits to the Grand Canyon and Yellowstone, only to be locked out, river runners seeking a life-time experience on the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon stuck on the beach at Lees Ferry, and these 94 Republicans are worried about barricades on the Mall posing an "unnecessary burden" to "the American people."

Make no mistake, the Park Service has stumbled a time or three in the way it has handled the shutdown process and enforced it. Tone deaf comes to mind in some instances, poor PR in others.

Indeed, in the case at hand, Rep. Huzinega cites a section of the Park Service's shutdown plan that states that Park Service facilities "located in urban areas where full NPS law enforcement coverage is continued due to the inability to control visitor access" would remain open.

And why would the Park Service send law enforcement rangers to shut down the Pisgah Inn along the Blue Ridge Parkway while reportedly allowing the Drakes Bay Oyster Co. -- a business the Park Service is trying to remove from Point Reyes National Seashore, by the way -- to continue business as usual?

Now, this isn't to say Democrats in Congress don't float some lead balloons, for they frequently do. But this GOP faction is rewriting the definition of frivolous and misguided representation.

Why are these 94 worried so about how much it costs "to operate an open-air site such as the World War II Memorial on a typical day," at a time when gateway communities are drowning in room cancellations and empty restaurants, when Park Service staff that wants to get back to work sits idly by and has to watch as visitors ignore barricades and enter the parks anyway, when there really, really must be something just a little bit more important to focus on?

Like, perhaps, ending the impasse that is causing this incredible dysfunction?

In the spirit of Rep. Huizenga's letter to Director Jarvis, we'd like to know:

* How much staff time it took to research and write his letter, and how much in salary that cost?

* How much time it took to seek out the 93 cosigners, discuss the matter with them, and get them to sign the letter, and how many representatives told them they were wasting their time and to take a hike (not in a national park, though)?

* Whether's he's calculated how much time, at taxpayer expense, it will take Director Jarvis to take a head count of his Mall rangers and track down the appropriate number assigned to the World War II Memorial?

* Has he given any thought to the pain and economic distress the rest of the country is going through while he's calling for a headcount of rangers on the Mall?

And as Rep. Huizenga wrote to Director Jarvis, we'd like his "prompt attention to this urgent matter."

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Comments

are smart enough to see through the political smokescreen the Repubs are generating by trying to "reopen" the government in small chunks.

Lee - why wouldn't one fund those areas upon which they agree? Looks to me like the Dems have cut off their nose to spite their face.


And around we go.

Congress's refusal to pass a clean cr is what forced the shutdown of the parks in the first place. Then, the Dems refused to vote for an ad hoc bill that would re-open the parks. Now, there seems to be bipartisan support to pass a clean cr to re-open the parks and the rest of the gov, but Boehner will not allow Congress to vote on it. Who is ultimately repsonsible for the parks being closed at this moment probably depends on one's own political bent and/or philosophy of gov't.


May I respectfully suggest that both hikertom and ec go back and hit their high school civics textbooks again? Both are only partially correct.

The timeworn mantra that "we are not a democracy we are a republic" is a gross distortion of truth.


No, ec, when trying to deal with a hostage taker it's important not to cave in to demands to release the hostage in small chunks.


Congress's refusal to negotiate is what forced the shutdown of the parks in the first place. They remain closed because the Dems voted to keep them closed. Who is ultimately repsonsible for the parks being closed are the ones that voted to keep them closed.


t's important not to cave in to demands to release the hostage in small chunks.

Hmm - I think any hostage negotiator would disagree with you. Isn't their first request "let the women and children out".


http://www.redflagnews.com/headlines/mag-conduct-of-national-park-servic...

(THE WEEKLY STANDARD) -- The conduct of the National Park Service over the last week might be the biggest scandal of the Obama administration. This is an expansive claim, of course. Benghazi, Fast and Furious, the IRS, the NSA, the HHS mandate—this is an administration that has not lacked for appalling abuses of power. And we still have three years to go."

States are now looking to remove NPS and return federal lands to the states.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 10, 2013 Contact: Jordan Hennessy, 919-715-8303 [email protected] Cook Statement on Cape Hatteras National Seashore Closures Raleigh, N.C. – The Outer Banks economy heavily depends on access to the beaches in the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park. President Obama’s decision to close these beaches is crushing our local businesses. Barricades have been erected to prevent access to fishing and wind surfing, the season’s most popular recreational activities. The president’s shutdown also includes the closing of the Wright Brothers National Memorial, the Fort Raleigh National Historic Site, the Oregon Inlet Fishing Center and the Avon Fishing Pier. The latter two places receive no funding from the federal government, but were forced to close because of contractual arrangements with the federal government. Obama’s administration is even threatening to prosecute the manager and owner of Avon Fishing Pier for attempting to open their business. Below is a statement from Senator Bill Cook (R-Beaufort etc.): “This shutdown is devastating to the Outer Banks Community. It will cost the North Carolina coast millions of dollars in lost tourism revenue. It seems odd to me that if the federal government is shutdown because it doesn’t have the funds to stay open, how is it able to pay park rangers to enforce the beach closing? The closing of the beaches is costing the government money that it does not have,” said Senator Bill Cook (R-Beaufort etc.). “Could the closing be more about politics than money? It’s truly unfortunate that President Obama has stated that he will veto partial spending bills that would restore funding to certain parts of the government such as federal parks. I think it’s time for the State of North Carolina to reconsider the ownership of the Cape Hatteras National Seashore Park. The federal government is showing us that they’re incapable of managing the park in an efficient way that benefits not just the residents of North Carolina, but the millions of visitors that come to the park each year.”


Congress's refusal to negotiate is what forced the shutdown of the parks in the first place. They remain closed because the Dems voted to keep them closed. Who is ultimately repsonsible for the parks being closed are the ones that voted to keep them closed.

My point pretty well demonstrated. And around we go . . .


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