WASHINGTON, D.C. – U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) today issued the following comment on the Department of the Interior’s announcement that it would allow some national parks to open if states pay for the operating costs:

“While I am pleased that visitors will once again be able to enjoy some of our national parks, it’s clear that the administration’s strategy to make the shutdown as painful as possible was an overreach that did not generate the expected reaction from the public. The administration obviously had options that could have lessened the shutdown’s impact on the American people from the start, but chose not to use them, and is now having to reverse course. Rather than working with their neighbors and gateway communities and coming together during this difficult time, the administration worked to exclude visitors from our parks. I believe that was a serious miscalculation on the part of the Department of the Interior. I hope the government will reimburse states for re-opening the parks – just as they did in 1995.”

Murkowski is the ranking Republican on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee and the Senate Appropriations Interior and Environment Subcommittee.