[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 159 (2013), Part 10]
[House]
[Pages 15064-15065]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                   OPEN AMERICA'S PARKS AND MEMORIALS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Washington (Mr. Hastings) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. HASTINGS of Washington. Mr. Speaker, yesterday the House passed 
and sent to the Senate a bipartisan bill to keep our national parks 
open. Twenty-three Democrats joined the House Republicans to end the 
closure of these national treasures. They joined us to unlock the gates 
and to open the doors of these treasures, from Acadia to Zion. They 
joined with us to tear down the barriers that were erected to block 
access to our open D.C. memorials that my colleague from South Carolina 
just alluded to a moment ago. These memorials are open 24 hours a day, 
365 days

[[Page 15065]]

a year. So the Senate should act today to pass this bill and to send it 
to the President for his signature.
  But it is disappointing to see statements from Senate Democrat 
leaders dismissing and even ridiculing these commonsense steps as 
``piecemeal.'' It is even more disappointing that the President has 
threatened a veto of this bill to keep the parks open.
  Mr. Speaker, let's not forget that one week ago today the Senate 
Democrats, led by Harry Reid, and the entire Senate, unanimously 
approved a bill to keep the Federal Helium Reserve open and operating, 
and last night the President finally signed this bill to prevent a 
helium shutdown into law. Now, make no mistake, Mr. Speaker, I am glad 
the Senate unanimously passed it, and I am glad the President signed 
the law. It is important for our economy.
  But the reason I bring this up is that the helium program is part of 
the Department of the Interior, the Department of the Interior that is 
responsible for our national parks. So one has to ask, why will the 
Senate pass and the President sign into law a bill to specifically 
prevent the closure of our Federal helium program, but then refuse to 
act on a bill that would end the closure of over 400 national parks 
that are visited by millions of Americans every year? The 
contradictions in their words and actions are glaring. Such political 
posturing is not only illogical and hypocritical, but the result of 
that posturing punishes the American people.
  Mr. Speaker, this does not need to happen, and it should not happen. 
So I urge the Senate Democrats and the President to stop going out of 
their way to make the government shutdown as painful as possible, and I 
urge the Senate Democrats and the President to come to the table and 
negotiate an end to this shutdown and to act today to take the 
reasonable and responsible step of passing a bill to open our parks and 
memorials to America's veterans, families, and all U.S. citizens.

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