Coburn: Interior Dept. should stop counting sheep and keep parks open

Senator Coburn

Interior Department officials dealing with sequestration could keep national parks open if they’d stop counting sheep and buying hybrid autos, Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told Interior Secretary Sally Jewell in a letter Tuesday. A video on the department’s YouTube channel last month warned that sequestration would shorten park hours, close hiking trails and campgrounds and reduce the season of some parks. The U.S. Geological Survey also warned it would be forced to shut down hundreds of flood warning gauges across the country. Meanwhile, Interior plans to keep spending on low-priority programs that could be cut to spare parks from sequestration, Coburn said. One program he singled out uses military drones to study pygmy rabbits in Idaho, observe elk in Washington and count sheep in Nevada. “While these studies may provide some interesting information about rabbits, sheep and other animals, cancelling or delaying them is not life threatening. Yet shutting down vital flood gauges, by the agency’s own admission, could be,” Coburn wrote. Conferences cost the department $7.8 million last year, another expense it could slash to keep parks open. But instead of sending employees to fewer conferences, department officials have developed ways to justify their expenses, Coburn said. Conferences aren’t the only travel expense Interior racks up each year. In fiscal 2009, the department spent $206 million on travel, including $63 million on airfare alone, according to Coburn. The Department of Interior’s Inspector General in 2011 reported the department could save up to $22 million in travel costs each year by using video teleconferencing equipment more often...more