Interior’s Jewell: no partisan motive in closing monuments

Interior Secretary Sally Jewell said Thursday there was "absolutely no political motive" in erecting barriers around some of Washington’s most iconic monuments during the government shutdown despite Republican critics who say the White House wanted to make the closure sting more for Americans. "The people of the National Park Service did not want to barricade the monuments, but the monuments don’t take care of themselves," Jewell said at the National Press Club. "The barricades protect the resources and we worked as best as we could" to accommodate groups, like veteran’s Honor Flights, who came to Washington during the shutdown to visit memorials. Jewell, in her first public remarks since the 16-day partial government closure, said that federal law prohibited her from employing park rangers to staff the monuments or national parks, both of which became the public face of the shutdown when Republican members of Congress helped push through the barriers around the World War II Memorial for veterans to visit. In wide-ranging remarks, Jewell also said members of Congress who say the Interior Department can repay states for re-opening national parks during the shutdown are spreading "misinformation," and that in the 1995-1996 shutdown, the department didn’t send a check to states, either. "We had to do some digging in historical records to understand that, but our records are going to be much more helpful should this crazy thing ever happen again," she said...more

That still doesn't explain why those same monuments reportedly weren't barricaded in the 90s shutdown or why a Park Ranger said, “We’ve been told to make life as difficult for people as we can. It’s disgusting.”