President Obama Criticized for Designating New National Monuments

Rep. Richard "Doc" Hastings, R-Wash., speaks at a news conference on the Domestic Energy and Jobs Act, June 6, 2012. Chris Maddaloni/Getty Images

President Obama today unilaterally designated five new national monuments, sparking criticism from at least one Republican who is questioning the timing and cost of the decision.

Obama used his executive authority under the Antiquities Act to create Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico; First State National Monument in Delaware; Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument in Maryland; Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers National Monument in Ohio; and San Juan Islands National Monument in Washington state.

“These sites honor the pioneering heroes, spectacular landscapes and rich history that have shaped our extraordinary country,” Obama said in a written statement. “By designating these national monuments today, we will ensure they will continue to inspire and be enjoyed by generations of Americans to come.”

In a statement released Friday, House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., criticized Obama for “unilaterally ordering the National Park Service to spend scarce dollars” while the nation faces harsh budget cuts as a result of the sequester.

“The Obama administration not only sees the sequester as an opportunity to make automatic spending reductions as painful as possible on the American people, it’s also a good time for the president to dictate under a century-old law that the government spend money it doesn’t have on property it doesn’t even own,” he said in the statement, which was recirculated today by House Speaker John Boehner’s office.

“Over one hundred years ago the Antiquities Act was passed to allow a president to act when there was an emergency need to prevent destruction of a precious place – yet President Obama is acting on simple whim as no imminent threat of destruction or harm is posed at any of these five locations,” Hastings added.

In response, the White House said the designations will have a positive, stimulative impact on the local economies and are an important way to commemorate the country’s history.

“It’s my understanding … that a lot of the land for these new national monuments was either land that was already owned by the federal government or it was donated,” Deputy White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest told reporters. “And in terms of the immediate costs, in terms of the management of the land, I think they’re pretty minimal in the early stages.”

According to a 2006 National Parks and Conservation Association study circulated by the White House, each federal dollar invested in national parks generates at least four dollars of economic value to the public.

Obama Administration Pushes For Assault Weapons Ban Vote, But Says No National Gun Registry Needed

Despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's decision to exclude the assault weapons ban from comprehensive gun control, President Obama still supports the ban.(George Frey/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

The Obama Administration says despite Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s decision to exclude the assault weapons ban from comprehensive gun control for lack of votes, the President still supports it and urges the Senate to vote publicly on the proposal to eliminate “military-style weapons” from American streets as an amendment.

Speaking in today’s White House Briefing, Deputy Press Secretary Josh Earnest said “it will be a question for all 100 members of the Senate to ask themselves about whether or not they think that voting for and supporting an assault weapons ban would actually do something to reduce gun violence in communities all across the country. So, we’re — – going to have that — we’re going to have that debate.” 

Related: Reid Pulls Assault Weapons Ban from Gun Legislation

Earnest also made clear that despite NRA fears, the President does not support a National Registry of legal gun owners.

“That is not something that the president has supported”, said Earnest.   He said the White House has no intention of taking away guns from law-abiding citizens.  ”What we want to make sure is that we’re keeping guns out of the hands of people who shouldn’t have them, but without interfering with the ability of law-abiding citizens to get their guns that they would like to buy.”

The President does support background checks, but asked if those could be carried out without a national list of all those owning weapons in the United States, Earnest said, “He’s not seeking a registry.”

Over the weekend Republican strategist Karl Rove insinuated otherwise on ABC’s This Week.  Rove told George Stephanopoulos “if there’s one thing that scares a lot of people who believe in the Second Amendment, is the federal government keeping a national registry of gun sales, and gun purchasers, and gun owners.”

Related: Karl Rove on ‘This Week‘

The Senate is expected to debate and vote on extending background checks to gun dealers and private sales when it returns from Easter recess.  The NRA opposes the measure with Wayne LaPierre saying on NBC’s Meet the Press, “It slows down the law abiding and does nothing to anybody else”. 

Still the White House indicated today it not only wants the Senate to vote on “universal background checks,” it wants members of the Senate and House to vote publicly on the now-dead assault weapons Ban.

Related: Bloomberg, NRA Brace for Showdown on Guns

Sequester Squeeze Delays Openings, Cuts Campgrounds at National Parks

(Getty Images)

The motto on the National Park Service’s website is “Experience Your America,” but visitors to many parks in the coming weeks and months may find their experience lacking, thanks to sequester cuts.

This weekend the Washington Post reported that Yellowstone National Park will delay its opening by at least a week — likely more — to the chagrin of surrounding small businesses. Several other of the nation’s most majestic landmarks will be making similar adjustments to accommodate the tightening of their budgets that comes as a result of across-the-board $85 billion federal spending cuts.

Months before the sequester hit, parks were already working creatively to make ends meet. Now all parks are cutting their budgets by 5 percent, with each deciding how that will work for their park, according to NPS spokesman Jeff Olson.

For most it starts with travel: cancel any employee trips that aren’t mission-critical. Then it moves to office supplies, hiring freezes and – in some cases – delayed or eliminated openings of some park areas.

Great Smoky Mountains National Park is closing three campgrounds in two states, two picnic areas, one horse camp and associated access roads, for the 2013 season, thanks to sequestration.

“We regret this will cause inconvenience to park visitors,” Park Superintendent Dale Ditmanson said in a statement emailed to ABC News, “especially those who have enjoyed these more remote areas of the Smokies year after year.We have focused our workforce to maximize the utilization of facilities throughout the remainder of the park in order to serve and provide recreational opportunities for our millions of park visitors.”

Olson described delayed openings as “a real heartache ” to businesses that surround national parks and depend on visitors to fill hotels, cafes and more.

Yellowstone National Park spokesman Al Nash said the local community will be hurt by the kinds of cuts his park will undergo this year.

“Frankly, it’s not the kind of change that they like to hear from us,” Nash told ABC News. “We all along have said that we knew that the sequestration cuts would have impacts, but that we were looking to minimize those impacts on our partners — either in the park or in the community — impacts to visitors. We have many fewer visitors at the start of the season than we do during peak season.”

Park pathways are currently buried under four feet of snow on level areas. The plan was to being plowing on March 4, which turned out to be the Monday after sequestration went into effect. Now park officials are hoping sunlight will melt some of the snow, keeping workers off the clock for those extra hours.

Even if the local community offered to help plow them out, Nash said it was unlikely that they would be able to get fully back on schedule.

“I can’t imagine an individual who would have the equipment necessary to assist us,” Nash said. “This is every year a very daunting task to open nearly 200 miles of roadway.”

Spring months are always vulnerable to unexpected, disruptive weather, he said, but Nash could not remember a time when the budget was the reason behind a park closure.

Olson said more of these announcements are likely to come out in the coming days and weeks. Official notices to unions that are the precursors to furloughs are set to go out this week.

For Grand Canyon National Park Superintendent David Uberuaga, cutting access to the park was not an option — even as he had to find $1.06 million to drop from the budget.

“We have less supplies, less equipment, less travel, less overtime and yet the public demand has never been higher,” Uberuaga told ABC News Tuesday. And in his opinion, the sacrifices the park is making should not stop visitors from coming.

Uberuaga struggled to keep cuts internal, taking away all employee recognition awards before reducing services. Now visitors might notice restrooms smelling riper, the visitors’ center closing earlier than it normally would in summer and longer lines to ask rangers questions.

But once they do reach the front of that line, “the ranger will have a smile on his face. The ranger will be trying to take care of that visitor as if it’s the most important thing that they do,” Uberuaga said.

Grand Canyon Public Affairs Officer Maureen Oltrogge said Uberuaga had “gone above and beyond” to keep employees in the loop about the park’s financial situation in recent weeks.

Even so, there was a sense of frustration among employees, according to Uberuaga. Not with his expectation that they work harder and harder, even with their recognition cut, but with their desire to do their jobs to the best of their ability.

“We have this incredible resource to protect; we have almost 4.5 million people coming; we want to do well,” Uberuaga said. “And yet we don’t have all the resources.”

Rocky Mountain National Park Superintendent Vaughn Baker downplayed the effects of the sequester last week in an interview with the Daily Caller, but severity may be a matter of opinion. Here is how the cuts will play out, Rocky Mountain spokesman Kyle Patterson told ABC News Tuesday:

Fewer rangers will be able “to respond to emergencies in the backcountry” and 140,000 of the park’s 3 million visitors will be slighted by reduced hours at the visitors center.

Those coming to the park to enjoy learning more about our nation’s wilderness will be disappointed to note educational programs will be reduced. They also may have to hold their noses, as bathrooms and other facilities will be cleaned less often.

One of five campgrounds at the park will never open this summer, leaving 148 single campsites and 13 group campsites empty all year.

And finally, spring snows that would normally be cleared out of Trail Ridge Road — the path spanning the park that area businesses call “the ‘life blood’ of their economy,” according to Patterson — could close the road for up to 10 days this season.