Friday Round Up: Government Shutdown Averted and an Update on the NPS Lease Terminations
Good Reads: Felling of the U.S. Forest Service and a NC town hall descends into chaos
Late this afternoon, the Senate voted to advance the Continuing Resolution (CR) to fund the government at its current level through the remainder of the fiscal year, which ends on September 30. The bill is not perfect, there are some provisions that cause considerable concerns but a government shutdown is also incredibly damaging. At the very least, federal agencies know their funding levels and can plan for the remainder of the year. 10 Democratic and Independent Senators voted in support of the bill. The Senate will vote later tonight on final passage of the CR.
For those of you who would like to dig into all the details, The NY Times has a good round up of the debate over the CR.
The debate will now turn to the FY26 budget.
I’ve been tracking the Trump Administration’s plan to terminate NPS leases and close 32 offices across the country that function as visitor centers, law enforcement offices, museums and hubs for critical park services. Of particular concern are the Little River Canyon Center in Alabama; the Judge J. Smith Henley Federal Building in Arkansas, which is the headquarters for Buffalo National River; and the visitor center for the New Orleans Jazz Historical Park in Louisiana. We learned this week that two of the targeted facilities have been taken off the termination list when Alaska’s Senators weighed in with Interior Secretary Burgum.
I am attaching below the list of NPS terminations that the National Parks Conservation Association has compiled. If you have an office in your community slated for termination, check in with your local Friends group to see what is being done to halt the terminations. Please keep me updated on your efforts so I can share with the NPS Coalition. National and grassroots advocacy is going to be required to keep these important offices open.
While there is considerable concern over the rushed closings with no rationale for these decisions, the effort is seen as a test ballon to gauge public sentiment for closing a significantly larger list of NPS natural, historic, and cultural assets. We also need to look at this as a warm up to fight to preserve those assets.
Good Reads
The New Yorker this week has a great piece, The Felling of the U.S. Forest Service, on the impact of the Forest Service employee firings on disaster relief, which is focused on the Pisgah National Forest in North Carolina
I had initially planned to send this Washington Post article on a Town hall descends into chaos as GOP lawmaker is heckled about Musk, Trump to just the network members from North Carolina but I reconsidered as I think this is a good example of how speaking up on the issues that matter to your community can change elected officials positions. Don’t assume that your elected officials understand how an issue can impact your community you need to inform them. Ideally, in ways that won’t get you arrested.