National Park Service Operations, Smithsonian Institution, National Gallery of Art, and United State Holocaust Memorial Museum Continuing Appropriations Resolution, 2014

Floor Speech

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Mr. DAINES. Mr. Speaker, I stand in strong support for the legislation that will reopen our national parks in this country, and I speak as a fifth-generation Montanan. I speak also as a voice of the people from the State of Montana who know that our national parks not only represent an important part of our economy, but also an important part of our national heritage.

We're seeing firsthand, as we are listening to phone calls coming in from constituents across my State, the undue hardships that the communities surrounding Glacier and Yellowstone National Parks are facing due to Washington, D.C.'s failures.

As a fifth-generation Montanan, I've got great memories of visiting Montana's national parks. In Yellowstone Park, fishing, spending time listening to the elk bugle in September, seeing Old Faithful. In Glacier National Park, there is nothing like going over Going-to-the-Sun highway, watching mountain goats there on Logan Pass.

But communities like Glacier, Whitefish, Columbia Falls, Kalispell, around Yellowstone Park, West Yellowstone, Gardiner, Cooke City, Silver Gate, Livingston, they're being directly affected by these parks being shut down. They depend on these parks for tourism, for economic growth, for jobs.

I'm grateful I raised these concerns this morning to the leadership of the House, and here we are this afternoon responding to these problems and solving them. A little less talk, a lot more action is what is needed. I'm glad we're going to be moving forward here to open up the national parks.

I urge Congress to come together and provide the funding needed to keep our national park gates open.

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