Interior Subcommittee Chairman Simpson: Democrats' Prolonged Shutdown Puts America's Natural Treasures at Risk
Washington, D.C. – Interior and Environment Subcommittee Chairman Mike Simpson (R-ID) joined Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) and House GOP Leadership on day 22 of the Democrat-led government shutdown to highlight the devastating consequences for the American people and our national parks.
Senate Democrats have had eleven opportunities to join bipartisan majorities in both chambers and vote for a clean continuing resolution that would reopen the government and restore funding for our nation’s parks, monuments, and public lands – but they voted "no" every time.
Chairman Simpson warned that the lack of funding for park staff, maintenance, and preservation projects risks irreparable damage to America’s most cherished landscapes. Last year, the National Park System hosted 331 million visits - including 28 million in October alone - but this October, communities that depend on park tourism are paying the price for the Democrats' inaction.
Read on for highlights from his remarks.
On the Damage to the American People:
"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."
On Democrats’ Culpability in this 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.”
On Protecting America’s National Parks:
“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.”
On Restoring Regular Order:
“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 spoke on the clean, nonpartisan funding extension that Chairman Cole led and the House passed, which is currently being obstructed by Senate Democrats. As he stated, "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."
This short-term, clean continuing resolution would have prevented harmful disruptions to our national security and to vital programs Americans rely on. It also would have ensured Americans weren’t needlessly punished and allowed Congress to “preserve our ability to keep negotiating on the full-year funding bills.” Each day this shutdown continues is another day lost that could have been spent conferencing and advancing full-year appropriations.
Speaker Johnson emphasized that the clean CR reflected exactly what Democrats had requested, saying, "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."
While House Republicans voted to exercise the power of the purse and keep government operational, Democrats chose to shut the government down and hand over their authority and duties to OMB. Bottom line: Democrat obstruction is halting progress on full-year funding bills and sidelining Congress from its Article I responsibilities.
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