Now that she mentions it…
Via NRO:
As Katrina reported Wednesday, House Republicans want answers from the National Parks Service (NPS) regarding its controversial actions during the government shutdown. They are particularly interested to know why barricades were erected to in front of open-air monuments such as the World War II memorial, and are concerned that NPS decisions are are being motivated by politics — intended to cause maximum disruption and public outrage. Earlier this year, GOP investigators raised questions about the parks service’s implementation of spending cuts under sequestration.
Gale Norton, who served six years under President George W. Bush as secretary of the Department of the Interior, which oversees NPS, tells National Review Online she thinks at least some of the recent closings are politically motivated.
“The National Parks Service has a long history of dramatizing budget issues by inconveniencing the public,” she says. ”They often choose the most dramatic type of action in order to get their message across. It’s something I had to guard against when I was secretary — not letting them play budget games.“
NPS has engaged in such behavior for decades, Nortons says, recalling at least one occassion during the Reagan administraiton, in which she worked as an attorney for the parks service, when NPS decided to close Skyline Drive, a scenic highway running through Shenandoah National Park, in order to make a statement during an appropriations fight on Capitol Hill.