Florida Congressman Brian Mast (R) is sounding the alarm on the effects of the government shutdown, warning that it is “hurting our protected public lands & parks.”
“Not only is this shutdown affecting millions of Americans, but it’s hurting our protected public lands & parks," Mast expressed on social media. "Democrats’ refusal to reopen the federal government devastates our National Park Service system.”
In an interview with the Washington Reporter, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum told reporters that the so-called "Schumer Shutdown" is decimating hundreds of protected National parks.
Burgum explained how his department is “scraping everywhere we can to find the dimes and the nickels which add up to millions of dollars a day and tens of millions a week to try to keep the parks operating.”
“When the government is shut down, we cannot use appropriated funds, so then we have to try to find dollars in other accounts, like recreation fee funds, which could include the gate people you see at a park; they make you pay an entrance fee,” Burgum explained.
The Secretary further explained that the funds collected in those matters aren't the same funds being withheld. “That’s not an appropriated dollar, but those are the dollars that go towards things like deferred maintenance within the parks, which are obviously essential, because we’re always underfunded on deferred maintenance.”
Burgum also detailed how funding cuts to the National Park Service directly harm the economies of towns that rely on tourism to those parks to survive.
“Schumer and Senate Democrats are inflicting a double whammy on economies across the country, in terms of less revenue and more expenses, but the people who really get hurt when the government shuts down in these parks are the entrance communities," Burgum argued. "The entrance communities live on tourism, and if people are not able to come and enjoy the parks, particularly peak leaf season, for example, that’s devastating.”
