michigan's eighth district served a variety of roles in the pentagon during the obama administration, culminating as acting defense secretary first -- secretary for international security affairs. she previously had jobs in the cia and state department. haley stevens started her career working for the obama administration's auto industry bailout. she worked on ways for small and midsize manufacturers to adopt digital manufacturing methods, including creating job-training programs. her colleagues elected her as one of the presidents of the freshman class. new congress, new leaders. watch it all on c-span. joining us now as kristen brengel, vice president of government affairs at the national parks conservation association. thank you for joining us. can you slain the role of your organization?

-- can you explain the role of your organization? aroundwe have 27 offices the cult -- the country and we worked to protect and enhance national park's for future generations. host: as we look at the government shutdown we have heard a lot of stories and seen a lot of pictures from national parks about what is going on with this shutdown. how many national parks are there? what is in national park? what percentage of them are affected by the shutdown? 418 nationalare park units, battlefield, seashores, lake shores, and about a third of them are closed because they have a lake -- a lock and key, like the federick douglass house here in washington, d.c.. many have been told to stay open during the shutdown. the interior department directed it. in some cases the parks that have excessive snow have

closures because you cannot get in. you have to plow the road and the park service can't pay to plow the roads. in other cases people are getting into national park's without visitor services. host: what has the impact been? guest: it has been terrible. battlefields are losing some of their artifacts. a joshua trees have been cut down and used for firewood. off-road vehicles have been driving into wilderness areas. the muster magic impact across the board in many parks is trash build -- the most dramatic impact across the board and many parts of trash build and human waste. there will be a huge cleanup effort after the shutdown is over. host: here's a picture from a tweet in joshua tree national park. visitors are cutting down joshua trees and driving into sensitive areas where vehicles are banned. we have had some extensive four-wheel driving. speak to us, what is the impact to the parks? guest: damage.

it's damage, potential looting .f artifacts we will not know the full picture of the damage until the shutdown is over and we get staff back into the parks. because of the way the shutdown works you can only have essential staff in, only 16% of national park service tax -- staff are in the parks now, it's mostly law enforcement. there is not enough people. yosemite has 800 staff and only 50 are working. they are not protecting the resources, they are not being protected and the interior department is favoring giving folks access without providing that protection. host: we have the phone numbers on the screen for kristen brengel. we have a separate line just for recent national park visitors, if you have been there, tell us why you were there and what you

saw. number48-8002is your --(202) 748-8002 is your number. and a separate line for our other guests. so what are you doing now? guest: we are trying to work with congress to get the parks open. we are advocating strongly the senate move to pass the interior appropriations bill, which passed in the house yesterday. but all of the parks need to be open with their staff. it is paramount that we get them parks back open. we work with our members across the country to advocate to make sure that parks are funded and well staffed. host: how many folks are affected? people who work at the parks around the country? guest: 15% of park rangers are on the job, so that leaves a large number who are not, 80% are not there. they are furloughed, they did

not get paid yesterday. these are people who are dedicated public service -- servants who love the parks. they protect the geysers, the wildlife, this is demoralizing for them. and they are going to have to clean these places up when they get back to their jobs after the shutdown is over. seeing so much science, some of the scientific studies that have been going on for years, sometimes decades are being interrupted by this. the impacts are going to continue after the shutdown is over. host: and what is the financial impact in terms of fees and moneys collected? guest: the parks cannot collect parks collect7 fees, they are not doing that and you -- now. it's a loss of about $400,000 a day to the park system. if i'm doing the math correctly, it has lost about $8 million

now. this is money used for interpretation, education, law enforcement. this money will be lost forever. they will never get this back. congress is not going to supplement them at this point with the current appropriations bill. this will have lasting impact. in addition a lot of that fee money is used for maintenance. 55% is used for maintenance. we have a $12 billion maintenance backlog in the parks. we have water pipelines in the grand canyon that are bursting. we have historic homes that have roots that are collapsing. are collapsing and because the fee money is lost forever we will not be able to fix them. recently visited national park, tell us about it. spoke tour guest here one of my questions, which was visiting the blue ridge parkway

i see a lot of things that are broken, picnic tables, trails in disrepair. what is the administration doing to try to fix our parks? thank you. guest: there have been bills introduced. one bill we have been advocating for is called restore our parks, which will hopefully be reintroduced early this congress. for $6.5ould do is pay billion worth of the maintenance backlog. that means it would repaired buildings, and other amenities that people enjoy in our national parks. when you think of a national park you don't think of it as a town. but in some cases it has its own water infrastructure, its own sewage infrastructure. over time the lifecycle of these different types of infrastructure starts to deteriorate. it's quite important that

congress put money behind deferred maintenance and make sure the parks are getting the funding they need. we hope the bill will pass in the house and senate. karen, anotherto recent visitor from columbus, north carolina. caller: i'm calling about the same parks system, the burnsville gentlemen from north carolina called about it. i was up there recently and it's sad, individuals, i don't know what their political leaning is, but they are bringing up trash on purpose. they are bringing up their household garbage and just like the gentleman said they are destroying items like picnic tables. it is sad to see people's mentality, they are just so demented that they would do this on purpose. it breaks my heart because they should take pride in their parks. it's heartbreaking. at this point in time, with the government shut down. thank you for taking my comment. karen, thank you.

i want to ask, are you encouraging people to visit? guest: we don't want to discourage people from visiting parks, they are there for us to enjoy. but there are issues that happen when you don't have park rangers at the gates, directing people where to go, telling them what to do. just the other day i watched a video of people jumping off of a boardwalk at yellowstone national park and walking towards the geyser. it's extremely unsafe. you should never do that. the water is extremely hot. the people are doing things they typically wouldn't do if there were park rangers on the ground helping check the resources and educating people about protecting resources. host: i'm going to ask you to put some numbers in perspective, seven people have died in national park's since the shut down. but three had to people year die in national parks, canepa those numbers in perspective? what -- can you numbers in

perspective? what are you bracing for for personal safety? host: -- guest: it's a huge issue and park rangers try to prevent accidents but even when parks are well staffed accidents happen. railings on the side of the to becanyon -- you have careful when you go. that's why we have staff people there educating people about what to do and where to go and to hold your kids tightly on the boardwalk's near the geysers. and don't get near wildlife. keep your distance from wildlife. when there is no one there to direct you and tell you what is currently happening under this makes people more vulnerable to hazards. host: we will hear from frank in california. caller: good morning. i am familiar with national parks, slightly. on thea vacation home

edge of a national park. and i met the concessioner of occasionally -- i became very familiar with it. fight not quite how did the land become government instead of private? it's because the owners of those properties were given an incentive to donate the land to the government by stating, and that anyact now, business concerns of the national parks are in private hands. they made the prophet, it is maintained by the government, and they make their living off of it. sometimes selling concessions

and the work and maintaining is done by the government itself. there are people in the last -- it is aty park private concern to run the concession in the park and other employees are living in the vicinity of the park and i know a lot of them. ,hey have housing in mineral and that's how it works. you have private people and the national government people, and it's maintained by the government, and what a wonderful incentive to people to let them make the profit from it. host: frank, thank you. issue thataises an we are equally concerned about, the gateway communities that surround national park's. these are people who all showed -- also care for parks and provide services.

we estimate that in january these communities are losing upwards of $20 million a day during the shutdown. these are small communities in a lot of cases, like the color pointed out, small towns that are dependent on people -- like the caller pointed out, small towns that are dependent on people buying their gas and their lunch. so people not visiting has a deep impact. host: let's talk about congress, a member of the appropriations interior subcommittee said this about the impact of national parks. >> there are over 1100 federal workers and their families in -- alone. this includes employees in the acadia national park and the wildlife refuge. the air and water program officers at the epa among them. this shutdown has made life difficult for these workers and

their families. it has halted critical duties that they perform. programs funds bio that we use every day to protect our resources, to learn about the environment, to protect americans to our national -- to connect americans to our national treasures. so far the administration has used accounting gimmicks to give the appearance that these parks and agencies remain open. but you cannot hide the real consequences of this shutdown. for example at national parks there have been reports of habitat destruction, injury, and death since the beginning of the shutdown. we do not need gimmicks, we need to reopen the government. , bettyet me add to that mccollum of minnesota wrote that the law is clear, the national parks must be closed to protect public safety and pristine spaces, it is not acceptable to use the recreation enhancement act funds to keep the parks open

and the department of the interior's actions likely violate appropriations laws. so the is there a law being broken? do you see it that way? guest: we sent a letter to the inspector general to open an investigation immediately on the legal violations undertaken by this administration. the administration, unlike previous administrations has put a policy in place to keep parks open. because the parks are open, that is why the damage is being caused. what we are saying is that they are violating the law because they are creating a health and human damage by keeping the parks open. but if they had them closed, -- they are manufacturing a crisis here. and the national park service was established over a hundred years ago, it was established by a law that says parks are

conserved unimpaired. everyre being impaired by standard. this administration is not taking a cautious approach, they and welating the law need to make sure that we learn from this mistake. that is why we are calling on the inspector general to investigate. bill,back to the phones, from palm springs, california. caller: good morning and god bless you. i can't imagine what is going through your head and what you are seeing. i'm up the street, 30 miles from joshua tree park. the plans are literally hundreds of years old, they don't look like much, but because of the lack of water and the topography and the types of flora and fauna we have these things survive on very little. two of my buddies from church helped run the park, and a lot of people in the neighborhood are bringing in toilet paper,

cleaning the toilets, taking the trash out, things like that to help them. punks other side we have with four wheelers destroying the parks. cutting these trees down and driving their four wheelers through places they have no business. the time,e news all and i'm sure across the country it's the same way. just after the election i was in utah. i was listening to talk tv, local programming in the morning , in the mountains. i hear the movers and shakers talking about shrinking the parks, dig everything up out of the ground, cut all the trees down, the spotted owls cannot even fly through the forest, we will cut down the trees. and we have these lobbyists in the trump administration pushing for this. thatshrunk bear ears park

president obama put together. that was donated land, just like people have been saying. this is donated land. these people want to come in there and suck all the oil out and take out the minerals, whatever they want to do, it's criminal. it's truly criminal. and the people running this current administration don't care. they do not care. thank you so much for what you do. bless you. guest: thank you for those kind words. i can hear the despair in your voice. i was in joshua tree in november. i got to experience the beautiful forest of joshua trees, unlike anything you could ever see anywhere around the country. it's meg for sent, -- it is magnificent. it's one of the few places you could have a true wilderness experience. to know that any of it is being dissed -- to know that any of it is being destroyed is heartbreaking. utah's one of my favorite places

in the country. it's terrible and we are suing the interior department for shrinking bears ears, which is a travesty. a lot of sacred sites are going unprotected because of the move the administration made. online --ave a viewer we have brian, from massachusetts. kristen, thank you, and paul as well, c-span is important to us, as are the parks. my wife and i spent an afternoon parknational park, it's a run by the federal government. there was a security out guard -- security guard, he was employed that day. -- is typically what we have always done for our federal employees, aren't they leaning towards protecting what they love to do for a living?

i would be surprised, i never met a park ranger that does not , i'm surpriseddo that 800,000 employees are not actually at work, knowing they will get retroactive pay. hit $5 millionl worth of employee pay and benefits based on hundred thousand dollars on average if benefits, pay, the and the debt interest. that's the payroll that we have not spent for the past 22 days. guest: there is a law that prevents the federal government from bringing people back in in order to work. ,ou have to adhere to the law

there is a statute. but i agree that park rangers are amazing. they do a wonderful job. they are so proud of the work that they do interpreting our democracy and our history and our natural and cultural resources to the public. that's why we want to make sure we are taking care of them and make sure they get paid after theyhutdown, and that don't feel completely demoralized by having to do a massive cleanup because the administration is keeping parks open. guest: -- what is the average pay of a price range -- park ranger? and what are they doing those shut -- doing during the shutdown? guest: they are furloughed like every other employee, hopefully not many are struggling but we hear stories of people who are struggling with paying their rent. can they volunteer if they like? guest: they can, in some areas, some of the efforts, especially

with human wastes, i would urge people to be careful in terms of going in there. but if folks wanted to volunteer, they should. wanda, ins go to chico, california. caller: i called senator feinstein to find out whether or not government workers who are furloughed get unemployment checks, and they do. it's a little strange to me that nobody mentions that. so why don't you worry about all of the damage the illegal immigrants due to the desert when they come through with their trash? they piled up their trash and their human waste all over the desert and they damage the desert a lot more than what this shutdown is damaging. host: let's get a response to the critique. guest: the damage tapped -- the

damage happening to our national parks is widespread. i can't overemphasize that. artifacts have been taken from battlefield at gettysburg, we have seen off the road a and people driving through big bend and texas. dunes atmping into the white sands new mexico. people jumping into geyser basins at yellowstone national park. this is happening all over the country. the damage is real. the trash and litter pickup is real. this needs to come to an end. we need to get the government up and running and we need to make sure that the park staff can go out there and protect the resources. the: we spoke about interior appropriations bill let's talk about the secretary of the interior, ryan zinke has stepped down, who would you like to see in that position and what would that person need to bring to the operation? guest: i'm not going to name a name, no-name surfaces in

particular that we are looking at. but i can tell you that as one of the previous collars discussed, we need an interior secretary -- previous caller discussed, we need an interior secretary that protects the land, so far 2 million acres of land has been taken away from protection. it is tragic. no other president in the history of our country has reversed and used the antiquities act to not protect our public land. this administration also has energy dominance agendas. they are leasing oil and gas all over the west and right near national parks, right at the doorstep of national parks. they are putting in place wildlife policies that will not protect wildlife and will harm them long-term. we need an interior secretary who will protect wildlife, protect resources, ensure that we are conserving our public

lands and supporting the staff. the major thing the administration does every year in our budget. this administration two years in a row has fought for cuts to the national park and the public land. this is not ok. we need someone in this position who will protect these lands that americans hold sacred. host: mitch, in delaware, good morning. good morning, thank you for taking everyone's calls, i really like this, i'm 18 party democrat-- a tea party , i remember when president to anput up a barricade open air plaza world war ii memorial and put guards around the outside in the veterans had to storm it using their wheelchairs and their walkers and they knock down the barriers that would have otherwise been accessible. that being said, i want to offer

some encouragement to the hundreds of thousands of federal employees that are being furloughed right now by paraphrasing the current speaker of the house. the worsturing recovery in the history of this country, when hundreds of millions of private citizens were laid off. and she, to paraphrase, said to use the time to use the opportunity to pursue other hobbies. i would like to offer those words now, to encourage those employees being laid now to ence employees who are being laid off at this time. have a good day. host: thanks for calling. final thought on the condition of the national parks and what you are looking toward. guest: i think the parks are emblematic as to why it is so important for congress to pass a

funding bill that moves forward the interior appropriations bill that is signed into law to get our parks back up and running. the resource damage that is happening right now is just tragic. when you to make sure parks are protected, and the only way to do that is to get the parks back up and running. this is just unsustainable right now, and the half measures put in place by the interior department is not enough. host: best selling offer -- other

discusses his new book the secret plot to kill george washington. be sure to watch washington journal live at 7:00 eastern on sunday morning. join the discussion. today is the 22nd day of the government shutdown making it the longest shutdown in government history. house and senate lawmakers voted to give federal workers back pay whenever the federal government reopens. 800,000 federal workers received a black -- blank pay stop -- paystub yesterday. follow the story with house and

senate debates and briefings on the c-span networks. texas sent nine new members to congress and the 2018 elections including for democrats. one left the nfl for law school then worked for the department of housing and urban development. veronica escobar was previously el paso county commissioner and county judge. she is one of the first two latina congresswomen elected by texas voters. garcia whos sylvia now represents the 29th district.

before that she held a number of positions including terms on the harris county commission and as houston's city controller. fletcher, this is the first time her district has elected a democrat. the first member to hold the seat was george h to be bush. congress, new leaders. watch it all on c-span. the white house did not release an address this week.