GAO: Feds violated law by opening national parks during shutdown

A new report from the Government Accountability Office says the Trump Administration violated federal law during a five week partial government shutdown, by using money from entrance fees at national parks to pay for regular operations to keep those facilities open to the public. In a 17 page report sent to lawmakers in Congress, the GAO said officials at the Interior Department acknowledged that they had used entrance fees during the shutdown in order to circumvent the effect of the federal government funding lapse, an accounting move not approved by the Congress. “The American people pay these park fees to make improvements at our national parks – but instead the Trump administration illegally diverted them to limit the public relations fallout from its costly and unnecessary government shutdown,” said Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM)...MORE