Tonight's Votes Were Not Controversial, So Can I Instead Let You Know About a Small but Meaningful Bill I Signed Onto at the Request of Darrell Issa of California?

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Tonight's votes were not controversial, so can I instead let you know about a small but meaningful bill I signed onto at the request of Darrell Issa of California?

Do you remember a couple years ago during the 2013 government shutdown when the open-air monuments and national parks -- places like the Lincoln Memorial, the Washington monument, and the WWII memorial -- were closed because the government claimed there wasn't enough money to keep them open? These were the same monuments that usually had no one on patrol during their normal days of operation, but during the shutdown there was suddenly money for patrols and barricades. A case in point would be the WWII Memorial which was suddenly staffed around-the-clock by eight officers during the shutdown - though I have run by there countless times and seen not one officer on the grounds.

We all know the why.

The administration's goal was to cause enough discomfort that they would gain political favor in that impasse over spending and authority in Washington. These monuments had never been used before in such a fashion. In fact, in the history of our republic the Lincoln Memorial has never before been used as a political pawn and shuttered. Not in World War One. Not in World War Two. Not in the Vietnam conflict or the spirited protests that marked the civil rights movement…never.

It should stay that way. A veteran's only trip to Washington to see the memorial built to commemorate their service or a school child's one trip to the nation's capital should not be held hostage to a political test of wills. As a consequence, I am now a cosponsor of the Monuments Protection Act, H.R. 1836, which says that national monuments and parks should be open. Period. This means that state and local governments could temporarily manage public monuments and parks if there's a government shutdown. They asked to do so in the last shutdown and were refused. Locals from Mt Pleasant, like Chris Cox, decided to lend a hand and were turned away as well.

The bill simply would prevent the federal government from wasting money barricading the World War II Memorial and turning away veterans who had been planning to visit their memorial for months. This is just common sense to me…what do you think?

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