The Statue of Liberty and Grand Canyon will reopen


Mount Rushmore will be re-opened thanks to state funding
The Statue of Liberty and the Grand Canyon are to
reopen after their respective states offered to fund
their running.

The Statue of Liberty will be funded with $369,300 from the state of New York for six days,
beginning on Saturday, while the Grand Canyon will
be kept running for seven days by Arizona at a cost
of $651,000.

More than 400 federally managed tourist sites across
the nation have been closed since the shutdown
started at the start of October due to a budget
impasse between Republicans and Democrats.

The federal National Park Service has, so far,
announced deals with the states of New York,
Arizona, Colorado, Utah and South Dakota, under
which the states agree to fund sites which draw
millions of tourists every year.

Mount Rushmore, Rocky Mountain National Park and
eight federal sites in Utah reopened on Friday for 10
days at a cost of $1.66m to the western US state.
However, destinations including Yosemite National
Park and Alcatraz prison remain closed.
Arizona governor Jan Brewer hailed the deal to
reopen the Grand Canyon ahead of a three-day public
holiday weekend.
She added it was important "not only for our national
and global travellers who have long awaited to
experience one of the world's seven natural wonders,
but for the nearby businesses and communities
whose livelihood depends" on tourism.

More than $150m a day is being lost in lost travel-
related activity, affecting up to 450,000 American
workers, according to the US Travel Association.
Some 20,000 park services employees are on
temporary unpaid leave.
South Dakota governor Dennis Daugaard said he was
pleased Mount Rushmore - "our nation's shrine to
democracy" - will be reopened.

There is no guarantee that the states will be
reimbursed by federal authorities when the
shutdown ends.
The funding is considered a donation, not a loan, and
it would require an act of Congress to authorise any
type of reimbursement, according to an official
source.

The US Travel Association sent a letter to the White
House and Congress on Friday, urging them to work
harder to resolve the budget standoff.
"The government shutdown is throttling America's
travel sector, which, until now, has been one of the
principal drivers of US economic recovery," said its
president, Roger Dow.

Meanwhile, The White House and Republicans are
painstakingly edging towards a deal to stave off a
disastrous US debt default and end the partial
government shutdown now sure to hit the two-week
mark.

President Barack Obama met face-to-face with
Republican senators and spoke by phone with
Republican House Speaker John Boehner, as
subordinates haggled over the terms of an eventual
truce to a bitter standoff.

White House spokesman Jay Carney said: "We are
obviously in a better place than we were a few days
ago in terms of the constructive approach we have
seen. But there is not an agreement."
http://news.sky.com/story/1153550/us-shutdown-states-to-reopen-landmarks

texanomaly: I know you are being serious. This is a serious issue.

So with that said...How does one close the Grand Canyon? It is not on a toll road. Parts of it are on Indian reservations. (Technically not even a part of the United States. The US has no jurisdiction there) Interesting.

Hezron Lorraine: I thought the same,but had to lift from the source unedited.