Obama Administration’s Shutdown of National Parks, Monuments, and Public Lands

The House has repeatedly taken action to fund the government and avoid a shutdown. Unfortunately, the Senate and President Obama refuse to come to the table and negotiate. One of the many consequences of this unfortunate shutdown is that millions of Americans are not able to visit our treasured National Parks and landmarks. However, the Obama Administration is going out of its way to take unreasonable and unnecessary steps to block public access to parks and monuments that isn’t warranted by a government shutdown.

For example, open air parks and national monuments, places without doors or gates, where people are allowed to visit 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, have been barricaded off. In addition, none of these D.C. memorials were closed during the last government shutdown in 1995-1996 under the Clinton Administration. The Obama Administration’s closing of these sites is not something they are required to do; it’s something they are CHOOSING to do. The Obama Administration wants the effects of this government shutdown to be as painful as possible.

The House has passed bipartisan legislation (H.J.Res. 70, Open Our National Parks and Museums Act) to fund National Parks and keep them open to the public. The Senate has yet to act.

Map of Closures Around Washington, D.C.:

In The News:

• Rangers issue citations for Acadia National Park closure order violations (Morning Sentinel)
• 'Gestapo' tactics meet senior citizens at Yellowstone (Eagle Tribune)
• Feds evict elderly couple from their home, cite shutdown (Washington Examiner)
• Lawmakers probe reports of property owners kicked off federal land amid partial shutdown (FOX News)
• National Park rangers ordered to keep visitors out of privately run businesses (Washington Times)
• Locally run Texas park closed by federal shutdown (Associated Press)
• Parnell objects to Alaska refuge access closings (News Miner)
• Seven national wildlife refuges closed in Iowa due to federal government shutdown (Des Moines Register)
• Shutdown leaves Cape Hatteras Seashore anglers high and dry (Outerbanks Voice)
• Pisgah Inn reopens, defies government shutdown (Citizen Times)
• The National Park Service Attempts to Barricade Mt. Vernon (National Review Online)
• Founding Fathers' Tavern Closed by Government Shutdown (NBC Philadelphia)
• Republicans investigating monument closures during shutdown (CBS News)
• Former Interior Secretary: Parks Service has a long history of dramatizing budget issues (National Review Online)
• Obama Administration Forces Hundreds of Privately Funded Parks to Close Amid Shutdown (FOX News)
• World War II Vets Cross Memorial Barricades Despite Shutdown (ABC News)