On the 22nd day of the ongoing government shutdown, Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and other House Republican leaders to discuss the impact of the closure on national parks and federal employees. The shutdown, which began under a Democrat-led Senate, has resulted in halted funding for park staff, maintenance, and preservation projects.
Chairman Simpson highlighted the potential risks to national parks due to the lack of funding. He noted that last year, national parks received 331 million visits, with 28 million occurring in October alone. According to Simpson, communities dependent on park tourism are experiencing negative effects as a result of the shutdown.
"This shutdown is causing even more damage for the American people. While the Democrats in their press conferences say they care about the American people, they’re fighting for the American people – when you look at the impacts of what they’re doing, clearly, the evidence is the reverse of that. They don’t really care about the American people – what they care about is keeping their leadership positions, and that’s exactly what’s happening. They say that they care about federal employees. The fact that we have furloughed federal employees that aren’t getting paid – clearly, the evidence shows they don’t really care about federal employees. This is about two leaders trying to keep their jobs, and that’s unfortunate," Simpson said.
Simpson also addressed responsibility for the shutdown: “House Republicans did not shut the government down. We voted to keep the government open. It’s the House and Senate Democrats that are voting to keep the government shut down… We gave them [Democrats] exactly what they wanted: a clean CR, no gimmicks, no policy riders, and short-term…That’s exactly what they got, and surprisingly, they voted against it.”
Regarding efforts to maintain access to public lands during previous shutdowns compared to now, Simpson stated: “The [Trump] Administration is trying to keep our national parks open. Unlike the Obama Administration during the 2013 shutdown, when they actually put tape around the World War II monument so that visitors and veterans could not go in and visit… they [the Obama Administration] tried to make it as painful as possible. The Trump Administration is trying to do just the reverse – they’re trying to keep the parks and our public lands open and make it as painless as possible… I applaud this Administration for their efforts to mitigate the impacts that this shutdown is going to have on our national parks.”
Simpson further emphasized a need for regular order in appropriations: “You’ve all heard us as Appropriators, and all Republicans, say we need to get back to regular order… What it means for those listening is that we pass bills –individual bills–we bring them to the floor [and] we go through an amendment process. We go to conference and then we bring a conference report back between us and the Senate... We haven’t done regular order for about 15 years. This leadership team behind me has moved us in that direction more than any other leadership team I have seen… You can’t [get back to regular order] overnight – it takes time. This leadership team has moved us in that direction, and we will get back to doing our appropriations process the way it should be done…But we can’t do that when the government is shut down…We need to open the government back up, get rid of the Stupid Schumer Shutdown, and let us do our job.”
Speaker Johnson also commented on a clean continuing resolution led by Chairman Cole which passed in the House but remains blocked by Senate Democrats. "The Democrat shutdown is a glaring example of just how far the Democratic Party has strayed from common sense. Remember the simple truth here, it was over a month ago now that we passed, the Republicans passed, the clean short-term continuing resolution. It's non-partisan. No gimmicks, no tricks, no riders, no partisan Republican policy priorities added to that."
Johnson said this measure would have avoided disruptions affecting national security programs as well as services relied upon by Americans while allowing Congress time for negotiations on full-year funding bills.
He added: "As Chairman Simpson pointed out here earlier – as one of the lead Appropriators; he noted that the date of November 21 was decided upon by the experts in the field; the Appropriators themselves – in a bipartisan agreement... The Republicans and Democrats on the Appropriations Committee came together and agreed on that appropriate date – but it was calculated to allow enough time to finish the job... The Democrats said to us: 'Please make it clean; please don't add Republican priorities – because then we can get the job done.' We did exactly that. We have been in good faith every single day on this; and [Democrats] are eating up the clock."
According to Johnson and Simpson's remarks at this event in Washington D.C., House Republicans maintain they acted to keep government operations running while blaming Senate Democrats’ opposition for prolonging both the shutdown itself and delays impacting America’s natural resources.
