On Christmas Day, President Donald Trump stated that he intends to keep the federal government closed until he secures the desired funding from Congress for his promised border wall, according to a report by The Washington Post.
About 25% of the government is shut down for the fourth straight day, the report stated, with Congress at a stalemate over Trump’s demand for $5 billion in wall construction money.
“I can’t tell you when the government is going to reopen,” Trump said. “I can tell you it’s not going to be open until we have a wall, a fence, whatever they’d like to call it.”
All told, about 800,000 of 2.1 million federal workers nationwide — or more than a third — are estimated to be affected in some way by the shutdown.
A sizable portion of those employees works for the National Park Service. National Park sites across the country are in various stages of operation, ranging from being completely closed to being open with limited services.
Visitors to the National Park Service website are greeted with this notice: “During the federal government shutdown, this website will not be updated and may not reflect current conditions. Some national parks may remain accessible to visitors; however, access may change without notice. Some parks are closed completely. Some visitor services may be available when provided by concessioners or other entities. For most parks, there will be no National Park Service-provided visitor services, such as restrooms, trash collection, facilities, or road maintenance. For more information, see www.doi.gov/shutdown and the park website.”
According to the NPS contingency plan — which can be found here: https://www.doi.gov/sites/doi.gov/files/2018_01_nps_contingency_plan.pdf — staffing levels at each NPS site will be based on the assumption that no visitor services will be provided. Campground reservation and check-in/check-out services as well as backcountry and other permits are among the visitor services that have been suspended.
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