Huffman Slams House Oversight Committee Hearing on National Park Closures

October 16, 2013

WASHINGTON­—Congressman Jared Huffman (D-San Rafael) slammed the House Oversight and Reform Committee for holding a hearing devised solely to berate the National Parks Service director. This hearing was nothing more than a spectacle staged for right-wing media and solved nothing, all while Senate leaders were announcing a deal to reopen the government and avoid a default.

“I came to Congress to solve problems.  I came to Congress to try to work across the aisle and raise the political discourse in this country, and try to set a better tone,” Congressman Huffman said. “The fact that it’s taking place during a government shutdown manufactured for political purposes by my Republican colleagues just makes it even worse. This is worse than fiddling while Rome burns – this is fanning the flames while Rome burns, this is looting and dancing while Rome burns.”

A video of Congressman Huffman’s remarks may be found HERE:

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A transcript of Congressman Huffman’s remarks may be found below:

“Thank you Mr. Chair. You know, I’ve almost run out of adjectives to describe this unfortunate hearing that we are having today. The one that I am left with is “sad.” I’m a freshman Member of Congress. I’m very proud to represent my district, to serve in this institution, but I am embarrassed by the Committee process in this hearing, the sham of the hearing that we are having today.

I came to Congress to solve problems.  I came to Congress to try to work across the aisle and raise the political discourse in this country, and try to set a better tone. And instead I am taking part in a hearing that makes the McCarthy Era look like the Enlightenment. The fact that it’s taking place during a government shutdown manufactured for political purposes by my Republican colleagues just makes it even worse. This is worse than fiddling while Rome burns – this is fanning the flames while Rome burns, this is looting and dancing while Rome burns.

We have heard all manner of over the top accusations from Members of this Committee, and we’ve heard made for right-wing media sound bites charges of malice, of deliberate infliction of pain, of a secret plan to maximize public inconvenience and impact. We’ve heard unnamed anonymous witnesses from a media report talk about these nefarious intentions, and then we’ve heard a Member of this Committee extrapolate from that and say it was the common belief among National Parks Service employees. All of this of course is going to be played on YouTube tonight. It’ll be played on Fox News – all of these made for right-wing media – accusations and claims. But there is zero evidence to support any of it. We’ve heard from folks who actually are on the ground who know – who can give us the facts – and there is zero evidence.

If this was a court you know what would happen? The Judge would bring the prosecutor of the plaintiff’s attorney up to the side bar and say: “You know, I’m not only dismissing your case, if you ever bring a case like this and make over the top accusations like that that you can’t support with evidence, I’m going to sanction you and I might even report you to the bar for ethical violations.” But there are consequences, there’s accountability in actual court and this is a kangaroo court. And so we will continue bouncing further into the rabbit hole, I am sure.

Director Jarvis, I can only imagine how difficult it is for you, as somebody who has dedicated your life, and your career to the mission and the work of our National Parks Service to be going through the shutdown of those very parks that you’ve dedicated your life to operating and serving. You’re in the business of opening parks and managing them and running them. This is such a wonderful success story for our country – the National Parks Service. To be asked to shut them down, especially under these circumstances, just must be awful. And I remember, I just served six years in the California State Legislature and I Chaired the Parks Committee, we went through our own parks crisis. And it was your Agency that was helping us save parks from closure. In fact, you saved three parks in my district because you stepped up, you believe in our public lands and our parks and the people and communities they serve, and I want to thank you for your service.

I can only imagine the indignity of having to sit there and listen to all of these baseless accusations. To have to listen to a witness who fronts for the oil and gas and coal industries and sues environmental agencies to try to prevent them from implementing environmental laws tell you that you are a terrible environmental steward, accuse you of hiding behind the veneer of popularity for our parks, to actually do harm to our parks and our environment. It is a disgrace that you have had to listen to this indignity, that you’ve had to sit there. We’ve had to listen to people romanticize about 1995 as if this were some shinning model of how you can close down the National Parks system and not have  anyone feel the pain. But we’ve also fortunately had a witness who actually presided over that disgraceful chapter and could tell us that yes, the anti-deficiency act actually applied in that case too, who can tell us that no it wasn’t some shinning model of success, monuments were closed, people were impacted, communities were impacted, pain was felt – some of it very high profile pain.

So, again I am struck by the fact that despite the over the top made for media accusations and sound bites in this kangaroo court, we have no facts at all to suggest that you’ve done anything wrong. Closing all of these parks, shutting down a huge Federal Agency, is a hard thing to do, there’s no easy way to do it, there’s no perfect way to do it. My only hope is that you are able to hang in there while we work through the terrible politics that brought us to this government shutdown and that we can get back to the business of running our Parks Service and serving the people and the communities that depend on it as soon as possible. Thank you for your service.”

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