A house committee will ask for answers on Interior's decision to use visit fees to keep parks open



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The Natural Resources Committee of the House intends to investigate the Trump administration's decision to reduce visit fees to keep the parks open, warned the president of the Commission, Sunday. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) Stated that his committee – which oversees the Interior – planned to review the legality of the decision, claiming that the closure had caused "terrible damage "in the United States

" President Trump Donald John TrumpConway's husband accuses Trump of having said that Tlaib "is dishonored" with a secular appeal to impeachment Trump says he's calling for a steel fence instead of a concrete wall, while Dems Trump supporters head the factory to Mexico MORE and his advisers have apparently taken aware that the closure that they created several weeks ago has caused terrible damage to our country, "Grijalva said in a statement released on Sunday.

"This is not how a rational president behaves, and the Natural Resources Committee will ask if these changes are legally justified."

The National Parks Service (NPS) announced Sunday at the Intended for staff a plan to "dive into the camp, parking fees and other fees collected from park visitors" in order to pay staff to meet urgent maintenance needs in a number overloaded national parks by visitors during the recent government closure.

"As credits have been used, it has become clear that busy parks with limited staff have urgent needs that can not be met solely by the generosity of our partners." said Daniel Smith, deputy director of the NPS, in a statement obtained by The Hill.

Smith stated that the acting secretary, David Bernhardt, was the Acting Secretary of the Interior.Developed a plan to "To address maintenance and remediation issues in a number of busy parks."

"We are taking this extraordinary step to ensure that parks are protected and visitors can continue to access to parks with a limited number of parks

Bernhardt signed a memorandum on Saturday to use royalties known as money from the Law on Improvement recreation on federal lands, shington Post reported .

The gates of most of the national parks of the United States were left open during the last closure, which has been extended since December 22nd. If visitors were able to access the parks, many services, including bathrooms and garbage collection was suspended, government employees kept at home. This has created a number of headaches across the country in busy parks, where garbage piling up, bathrooms are at full capacity and visitors are not being monitored by experts.

At least one park, Joshua Tree National Park in California, was closed due to "health and safety issues".

While in the past, access to national parks was restricted during a closure for security reasons, the former Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke [19659016] Ryan Keith ZinkeNational Parks Take an Unprecedented Step to Support Operations During Closure, for a Fee Entry Zinke Night Package Denies Lying to Investigators | Interior will not take FOIA requests when shutting down | Ocasio-Cortez advocates for the "ambitious" Green New Deal Zinke: visitors to national parks must "grab a trash bag" MORE has made protecting parks a priority of his mandate.

At the last shutdown last January, said Zinke For reporters, the parks should not be used as currency trading during stop negotiations.

"Our public lands and monuments really belong to the people and not the government," he told CNN.

The law "Inside" was not allowed to provide cleaning services in the parks.

"The forces of order are still there, but things like cleaning the bathrooms … and tell the story of our parks, which is important – that aspect, although the "Schumer closure" is planned, the law does not allow us to provide these services, "said Zinke, mentioning the GOP label for closure at the time.

In an interview of earlier this week, Zinke told The Associated Press that the public should "Pitch in, grab He resigned from the agency in December after several ethics investigations.

However, the Interior plan to poke a head in the fees was introduced. In its 2019 Emergency Response Plan, parks that collect fees under the Federal Land Recreation Improvement Act (FLREA) will use the available balances of recreation rights to provide basic services to communities. visitors in order to maintain toilets and sanitary facilities, to pick up trash, maintenance of roads, operations of campgrounds, law enforcement and emergency operations, as well as as the management of the entrance gates to provide critical information on security. "

Interior and NPS spokesmen did not return requests for comment.

Critics question the legality of the acts of the Interior. Use park rights, money allocated by Congress to pay for other federal spending, including the department's more than $ 12 million

Theresa Pierno, president of the National Parks Conservation Association, has qualified the action of NPS the equivalent of stealing.

"Instead of trying to reopen the federal government, the administration steals the money levied entry fees for to make it work our national parks during this closure, "she said in a statement.

" It is extremely worrying that the Acting Secretary of the Interior is putting pressure on the superintendents to 39, they keep the parks open, to the detriment of their long-term needs and their protection. "

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