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The July 4 "Salute to America" event cost more than $ 5 million in Washington, DC and the federal government, according to ABC News.
This figure included $ 2.45 million spent by the Department of the Interior and the National Parks Service for expenses such as barricades, medical services, staff and other logistical means, according to ABC. News, citing a letter from the Department of the Interior.
At the same time, the District of Columbia and the Department of Defense announced security and event costs of $ 1.7 and $ 1.2 million, for a total cost of $ 5.35 million. , according to ABC News.
National Parks Service Assistant Director Dan Smith told ABC News that the event-generated publicity for the National Parks Service was worth it.
"If you could tell me that for an additional $ 2.5 million, the exposure we got from this televised event, it's a great return for our money," he said. .
Smith denied that the money for the event was diverted from any planned or deferred maintenance initiatives.
Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), Chair of the House's natural resources committee, described the spending as "particularly bad", saying that despite a letter from Interior Secretary David Bernhardt citing similar figures for events such as on Washington in 2013, the event of 2019 had no comparable historical value.
"Mayor [Muriel] Bowser said the president's event had bankrupted a fund to protect the nation's capital from terrorist attacks, not to mention that he had still not paid the bills for his investiture, said Grijalva in a statement.
"In this context, the misappropriation of revenue from visitors to national parks to pay for the president's new extra event on April 4 was totally wrong," he added, according to ABC News.
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