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Today, the House Natural Resources Committee held a hearing discussing the PARC Act. The Provide Access and Retain Continuity Act, introduced last month by Rep. Chris Stewart (R-Utah), would enable states to continue operating National Parks and other federal facilities in the event of a future government shut down, if the states so choose.

“It is my hope in proposing this legislation that it will protect the hard working citizens of this nation from the uncertainties of politics,” Stewart said. “ To offer Governors and state governments the ability to develop contingency plans with the Department of the Interior before future government shutdowns take place.  It is not just good economic policy, it is humane policy.”

Utah’s Lt. Governor, Spencer Cox, testified before the committee saying that the effects of the national park closures were immediate and dramatic during the shutdown of the federal government. Cox noted that national parks and monuments, which add approximately $100 million per month to Utah’s economy, should continue to operate during any future government shutdowns.

“[In October], the State of Utah and the Department of the Interior were able to quickly negotiate an agreement in which the state would upfront the money to the National Park Service in order to operate Utah’s national parks and monuments until federal budget crisis was resolved,” Cox said.

Cox believes the PARC Act would help ensure continuity of operations.

During the hearing, the committee also discussed, H.R. 3286, a bill that would reimburse states like Utah for paying to operate National Parks during the October government shutdown.

“The important principle is that when states agree to help in a time of need, they should be fully compensated for this assistance in a timely fashion,” Cox said.

Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), Chairman of the House Natural Resources Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee, supports the PARC act and said that Congress should reevaluate how we go about managing federal land.

“States have proved that they are better equipped with regards to land and resource management,” Bishop said. “The notion that the federal government is the only entity that can oversee our resources is asinine and is regularly debunked.”

Read Stewart’s Committee Statement about the PARC Act, below:

“Thank you Chairman Bishop.  I am pleased to appear before your sub-committee to introduce H.R. 3311, the “Provide Access and Retain Continuity Act” or the PARC Act.  Thank you for considering this legislation here.”

“When the Federal Government shut down in October of this year it seemed as if the Administration used all the lessons from their years spent in Chicagoland politics to do what they could to make the shutdown felt by the nation in the most painful way.  In the shutdown of 1995 and ‘96 agreements were eventually worked out between the Interior Department and the State of Arizona that allowed the State to take over funding of some of the operations of the Grand Canyon National Park.  Yet in 2013 it took two weeks before any such agreement was reached, despite the Arizona precedent from the ‘95/’96 shutdown.”

“In my State of Utah it is estimated that Utah tourism suffered $30 million in losses due to the federal shutdown.  Tourism provides roughly 40 percent of the employment in Southern Utah where businesses and communities were hard hit in the government shutdown.  In Utah there are 5 national parks, 7 national monuments, 2 national recreation areas and 6 national forests; 70 percent of the land in my State is owned by the federal government.  Across the nation the federal government owns 30 percent of the land.  In the West, the State of Nevada is 84 percent owned by the federal government; in Idaho, Alaska and Oregon it owns more than 50 percent; in California, Wyoming, Arizona and New Mexico over 40 percent.  All this to say that if an Administration wants to make a shutdown painfully felt, it is easy for them to do so.  In the West, where there is so much federal land, it is detrimental not only to tourism but to other industries such as mining, timber, transportation and cattle production.  In the Eastern States there is more private land ownership.  In the west it can severally harm or destroy hundreds of small businesses that rely on the public lands.  This is not a situation that we in the west welcome, to be completely honest we would like to control our lands the way so many of our Eastern friends are able to but that is not yet the case.” 

“But whether you are from the West, the East, the North or South the recent federal shutdown with its closure of public lands constituted a loss of billions of dollars in business revenue around the nation.”   

“ I have proposed the PARC Act to keep this kind of abuse from taking place, to allow states, territories and the District of Columbia to enter into agreements with the Department of the Interior to keep economically important federal facilities in operation during future government shutdowns.  These agreements would be in place and could not be altered as a result of the political vicissitudes at the moment of a future government shutdown.  These agreements would allow for the continued operation of the public lands and for an avenue by which, once the government has re-opened, the states can be remunerated for their expenditures on behalf of the federal government.”    

“My intention in proposing this legislation is not partisan.  I understand the political knife cuts both ways.  My intention is to create a legal mechanism where Americans can be spared the economic trauma as a result of political partisanship.  It was not just National Parks in Utah or even the West that were closed and caused economic trauma.  There were facilities such as the Great Smokey Mountains National Park in North Carolina, the Atchafalaya National Wildlife Refuge in Louisiana, Acadia National Park in Maine, the District of Columbia, Liberty Island and Ellis Island in New York, Independence National Historical Park in Pennsylvania, just to name a few.  There was not any state in the Nation that was not affected by the federal shutdown.” 

“It is my hope in proposing this legislation that it will protect the hard working citizens of this nation from the uncertainties of politics.  To offer Governors and state governments the ability to develop contingency plans with the Department of the Interior before future government shutdowns take place.  It is not just good economic policy it is humane policy and I ask for your support and encourage its passage. Thank you.”

For a video of the Rep. Stewart’s opening statement and questioning of the witnesses, click here.