II 

114TH CONGRESS 

1ST SESSION S. 145 

To require the Director of the National Park Service to refund to States 

all State funds that were used to reopen and temporarily operate a 

unit of the National Park System during the October 2013 shutdown. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JANUARY 12, 2015 

Mr. FLAKE (for himself, Mr. ALEXANDER, Mr. BENNET, Mr. CORKER, Mr. 

GARDNER, Mr. LEE, Mr. MCCAIN, Mr. HATCH, and Mr. THUNE) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources 

A BILL 

To require the Director of the National Park Service to 

refund to States all State funds that were used to reopen 

and temporarily operate a unit of the National Park 

System during the October 2013 shutdown. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘National Park Access 

5 Act’’. 

6 SEC. 2. FINDINGS. 

7 Congress finds that— 


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•S 145 IS

1 (1) during the period in October 2013 in which 

2 there was a lapse in appropriations (referred to in 

3 this section as the ‘‘Government shutdown’’), the 

4 National Park Service entered into agreements with 

5 the States of Arizona, Colorado, New York, South 

6 Dakota, Tennessee, and Utah to temporarily reopen 

7 iconic national treasures in the National Park Sys8 tem, such as the Grand Canyon, Mount Rushmore, 

9 and the Statue of Liberty; 

10 (2) pursuant to the agreements described in 

11 paragraph (1), the States listed in paragraph (1) ad12 vanced approximately $2,000,000 to the National 

13 Park Service to pay for park operations during the 

14 Government shutdown; 

15 (3) the units of the National Park System that 

16 were temporarily reopened using State funds also 

17 collected gate entry fees; 

18 (4) the Government shutdown ended when Con19 gress passed the Continuing Appropriations Act, 

20 2014 (Public Law 113–46), which retroactively 

21 funded Federal agencies and Federal employee sala22 ries for the period of time during which the Govern23 ment was shut down; 

24 (5) by virtue of the retroactive appropriation 

25 made by Congress, the National Park Service reVerDate Sep 11 2014 00:44 Jan 17, 2015 Jkt 049200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S145.IS S145

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1 tained an unintended shutdown windfall from the 

2 States listed in paragraph (1) of approximately 

3 $2,000,000; and 

4 (6) the States listed in paragraph (1) that en5 tered into agreements described in paragraph (1) 

6 with the National Park Service should be fully reim7 bursed for advancing funds to maintain public ac8 cess to iconic national treasures in the National 

9 Park System during the Government shutdown. 

10 SEC. 3. REFUND OF FUNDS USED BY STATES TO OPERATE 

11 NATIONAL PARKS DURING SHUTDOWN. 

12 (a) IN GENERAL.—The Director of the National 

13 Park Service shall refund to each State all funds of the 

14 State that were used to reopen and temporarily operate 

15 a unit of the National Park System during the period in 

16 October 2013 in which there was a lapse in appropriations 

17 for the unit. 

18 (b) FUNDING.—Funds of the National Park Service 

19 that are appropriated after the date of enactment of this 

20 Act shall be used to carry out this section. 

Æ 


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