Trump officials weigh keeping national parks open even if government shuts down
Source: Washington Post
Trump officials weigh keeping national parks open even if government shuts down
By Lisa Rein and Juliet Eilperin January 17 at 11:34 PM
The Trump administration is drawing up plans to keep hundreds of national parks and monuments open to the public if the government shuts down this weekend, a precedent-setting change aimed at blunting anger over the disruption of federal services.
With government funding set to expire at midnight Friday, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke was still working with White House and National Park Service officials to develop a plan for keeping open parks from the District to Montana without rangers or other staff on site. ... Many parks are in peak season with thousands of visitors heading to warmer sites including the Everglades and Death Valley or to Yosemite for cross-country skiing.
The shuttering of iconic parks proved to be a political flash point during two previous government shutdowns, in 1995 and 2013. On both occasions, Republicans controlled Congress and a Democratic president sat in the White House; both times, Republicans shouldered much of the blame for ruining people’s vacations.
This time around, White House budget director Mick Mulvaney proposed keeping the parks open in the event of a budget impasse, according to an administration official who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss internal deliberations. That triggered discussions between top officials at the Interior Department and the Park Service and administration lawyers to determine whether and how to preserve public access to national parks.
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Staff reporters Lena Sun, Amy Wang, Carol Morello and Sari Horwitz contributed to this report.
Lisa Rein covers the federal workforce and issues that concern the management of government. Follow @Reinlwapo
https://twitter.com/Reinlwapo
Juliet Eilperin is The Washington Post's senior national affairs correspondent, covering how the new administration is transforming a range of U.S. policies and the federal government itself. She is the author of two books—one on sharks, and another on Congress, not to be confused with each other—and has worked for the Post since 1998. Follow @eilperin
https://twitter.com/eilperin
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-officials-weigh-keeping-national-parks-open-even-if-government-shuts-down/2018/01/17/7837649e-fbd1-11e7-ad8c-ecbb62019393_story.html
Close. Made it by seven minutes.
Retweeted by David Fahrenthold: https://twitter.com/Fahrenthold
If the government shuts down this weekend, the Trump administration might keep hundreds of national parks and monuments open — a precedent-setting change aimed at blunting anger over the disruption of federal services.
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(excuse my language but) fucking "cherry-picking" which agencies would stay open because the so-called "media" would focus on stuff like the National Parks and to hell with the safety agencies and other critical agencies that the media doesn't think is important enough to report on. I.e., hundreds and hundreds of thousands of civil servants get furloughed and tossed aside during the dog and pony optics show. It should be ALL or NOTHING. 
