Long Before the Shutdown, Republicans Were Hurting National Parks The closing of 401 national parks, monuments, waterways and memorials (plus 561 national wildlife refuges) as part of the broader government shutdown has the public in an uproar and Republicans in (partial) retreat. On Tuesday, the House passed a bill to fund these facilities as one of several measures to open those parts of the government whose shuttering has drawn the most criticism - a truly cynical gesture that rightly found no traction whatever in the Senate. "We're truly sorry," the Republicans seemed to be saying to the thousands of people, including overseas visitors, who were suddenly denied access to public treasures, from the Statue of Liberty in the East to Yosemite in the West. We really love the parks. But they do not love the parks. Long before the shutdown, they were doing them harm. Here are some examples of how Republicans have hurt parks since assuming control of the House in 2010, courtesy of the research and advocacy group American Progress: Gutted spending for America's parks and public lands, reducing the park system's operating budget by $315 million (or 13 percent in today's dollars). In the 2014 budget approved by the Appropriations Committee, they completely eliminated funding for the vital Land and Water Conservation Fund, which uses offshore oil royalties to protect battlefields, trails, preserve threatened open space and help states create their own parks. Halted the creation of new federal parks and wilderness areas. The last Congress was the first since World War II not to protect a single acre of public land as a national park, monument or wilderness area; the current Congress is on track to become the second. The result has been a growing imbalance between the amount of public land devoted to recreation and public use and the amount used for oil and gas exploration. Forced the seasonal closing of visitor centers. Even before the shutdown, budget cuts under the Republican-engineered "sequester" had pretty much frozen hiring in parks and wildlife refuges for the busy summer season. Finally - though this is not directly a budget matter - House Republicans are moving ahead with legislation that, far from adding to the federal estate, would actually sell off 3.3 million acres of public land to the highest bidder. If there is any upside to the park closings it is the widespread anguish they have caused the legislators who created this mess.