GOP to hold hearing on closed parks

Two House committees will gather next Wednesday to air GOP allegations that the National Park Service (NPS) is blocking access to parks and monuments for political reasons during the shutdown.

The Natural Resources Committee and the Oversight and Government Reform Committee will hold a joint hearing titled: “As Difficult As Possible: The National Park Service’s Implementation of the Government Shutdown.”

“Across the country, Americans are deliberately being denied access to open-air memorials and national parks – places that are open 24 hours a day, 365 days a year,” Natural Resources Chairman Doc Hastings (R-Wash.) said in a statement, adding that the Clinton administration didn’t close the sites during the mid-1990s shutdown.

{mosads}“They are forcing private businesses to close and are selectively choosing which high-profile sites to close off and which to keep open,” Hastings added.

A proposed witness list for the hearing was not available Wednesday and a GOP aide said the committees are in the process of sending out invites.

Republicans on both sides of Capitol Hill are bashing Interior Department decisions to shutter Washington, D.C.-area monuments, and parks and federal lands elsewhere, that Obama administration say should remain accessible.

“Their actions suggest a pattern of decision making based on politics rather than prudence,” Oversight and Government Reform Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) said in announcing the hearing.

Republicans have especially highlighted closure of the World War II Memorial, although the Interior Department is allowing access to the site.

As The Hill’s Jeremy Herb reported here, Obama administration officials say decisions about what gets closed or
who gets furloughed due to the shutdown aren’t politically motivated.

NPS Director Jonathan Jarvis said recently that memorials normally
open 24 hours a day had to be shuttered because he didn’t have the staff
to properly monitor them.

“Open-air doesn’t mean it takes care of itself,” Jarvis said on C-SPAN’s “Washington Journal” several days ago.

Senate GOP lawmakers aired criticisms that echo their House colleagues on Tuesday.

Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said hunters are wrongly being kept off U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service areas in her state, while Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) alleged the NPS is closing off access to Wyoming attractions that don’t require staffing.

This post was updated at 5:11 p.m. and 5:39 p.m.