The Washington Post - 07.09.2019

A20 EZ SU THE WASHINGTON POST.SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 7 , 2019

BY JULIET EILPERIN

The Interior Department broke
federal spending law when it
di pped into national park fees to
keep its m ost popular sites operat-
ing d uring this winter’s p artial fed-
eral shutdown, the Government
Accountability Office concluded
Thursday.
In a 17-page opinion, the GAO
found that Trump administration
officials violated the law by using
fees parks c ollected under the Fed-
eral Lands Recreation Enhance-

ment Act, which are designed to

support visitor services and to

fu nd operations a nd basic mainte-

nance. This approach violated the

lands law as well as the Antidefi-

ciency Act, which imposes restric-

tions on how agencies can r edirect

money without congressional ap-

proval.

At the time, National Park S erv-

ice Deputy Director P. Daniel

Smith said the agency needed to

divert the funds because keeping

parks open but understaffed was

no longer tenable.

The report, which was request-

ed by the two top Democrats on t he

House and Senate appropriations

panels overseeing Interior, used

harsh language to describe the ad-

ministration’s decision to tap en-

trance fees during the shutdown

without explicit authorization

fr om C ongress.

“Instead of carrying out t he law,

Interior improperly imposed its

own will,” the opinion states. “In-

terior cannot select which re-

straints a pply to its a ppropriations

and when these restraints apply.”

The public watchdog, which

noted that t he Park Service did not

respond to its r equest for an expla-

nation of its actions, instructed the

agency to restore the money i t had

diverted, report the violation to

Congress and outline w hat actions

it had undertaken to prevent an-

other diversion from happening

during a future s hutdown.

Money from the fund w as s pent

from Jan. 5 to Jan. 25; the Park

Service said Friday that it h ad used

nearly $10.3 m illion in that p eriod.

“With this decision, w e will con-

sider such violations in the future

to be knowing and willful viola-

tions of the Act,” the opinion s ays.

Interior spokeswoman Melissa

Brown rejected the GAO’s legal

analysis in an email. “We com-

pletely disagree with the GAO’s

erroneous opinion regarding our

appropriate and lawful use of

FLREA funds,” she said. “The de-

partment acted well within its le-

gal authority to clean up rest-

ro oms and pick up trash, so the

American people could enjoy their

national parks.”

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minn.)

and Sen. To m Udall (D-N.M.), who

had requested the opinion, hailed

the G AO’s f indings.

“The Secretary of Interior

seems to think the rule of law

doesn’t a pply to the Trump admin-

istration,” said a statement from

McCollum, who chairs the House

subcommittee on the Interior, en-

vironment and related agencies.

“This is a clear violation of the

constitution and the basic separa-

tion of powers between the execu-

tive branch and Congress.”

Udall, her Senate counterpart,

said while Interior officials sought

to justify the park-fee move, “their

assurances at the time that their

actions were legal have proven

false, and there should be conse-

quences for this violation.”

[email protected]

Watchdog: U.S. broke law by using fees to keep parks open

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