Barbara Lee: “Let me thank Chairwoman McCollum for her leadership on this issue as we try to get the government open. Madam Speaker, I…”

“Let me thank Chairwoman McCollum for her leadership on this issue as we try to get the government open. Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of the fiscal year 2019 Interior appropriations bill, which provides $35 billion to partially reopen the government. Now, this bill would also reopen our beautiful national parks and the Smithsonian museums. The situation in our parks right now, it is just not acceptable. Sixteen thousand Park Service employees are not working. Let me repeat that: 16,000 employees. The National Park Service is losing $400,000 a day from this shutdown, while uncollected garbage is piling up. Madam Speaker, this is horrible. It is ridiculous. We need this bill to reopen our parks, our museums, and our visitors' centers right away, and we need to pass this bill to keep visitors safe and end the furlough of law enforcement personnel in our national parks. Madam Speaker, these closings are impacting every district in our Nation. Near my own district, for example, in the beautiful bay area, Muir Woods had to close this week. In addition to wreaking havoc on Federal workers' lives, their families, their children, and their livelihoods, this Trump shutdown is also having an effect on tourism and the economy. So I urge my colleagues to vote ``yes'' on this bill and ``yes'' to reopening the government. The public deserves this. The Federal workers deserve this. Contractors deserve this.…”