Under criticism for staff cuts across the country, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum is directing national parks to “remain open and accessible” and says officials will ensure proper staffing to do so.
The order, issued late Thursday, also calls for a detailed review of each park’s operating hours, trail closures and other limits on visitor services.
Burgum said in the order that his department and the National Park Service “are committed to ensuring that all Americans have the opportunity to visit and enjoy our Nation’s most treasured places.”
But park advocates and others criticized the move and questioned how park employees could comply, given the Trump administration’s workforce reductions through voluntary separation offers, layoffs and an earlier hiring freeze. Fewer workers can mean shorter hours, delays, closed campgrounds, overflowing trash bins, unkept bathrooms, and risks to public safety, they say.
The park service has lost somewhere near 1,500 permanent employees since the beginning of this year, Rick Mossman, president of the Arizona-based Association of National Park Rangers, said Friday in a statement. And it's "bracing for another reduction in force expected in the very near future.”
The administration initially restored about 50 national park positions and hired some seasonal workers following an uproar over an aggressive plan to downsize the agency. More workers were offered their jobs back last month after a judge's order, but some decided to leave federal employment or were immediately placed on administrative leave.
Republican Rep. Bruce Westerman of Arkansas, chairman of the House Committee on Natural Resources, praised the order and said it will ensure parks fulfill their mission.
“As we head into the summer months, millions of Americans and visitors from around the world will be enjoying our beautiful national parks,” he said in a statement.
But Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the Denver-based Center for Western Priorities, said mandating parks to remain operational without needed personnel and resources is an impossible task.
“This secretarial order is a hollow and cynical attempt to save face amid the outrage from the public about the harm the Trump administration is inflicting to not only national parks, but the communities across the country that depend on them for economic survival,” Rokala said in a statement.
Burgum's order says assistant secretaries will review the operating hours for each park and a full report must be sent to him within 15 days.
Rokala said that plan would remove park superintendents and the public from any future decisions regarding park management.
“If past is prologue, the public will be left completely in the dark about all the decisions," Rokala said.
The order noted that national parks welcomed more than 331 million visitors last year. The sites were run by more than 20,000 employees and 300,000 volunteers, he said.
Associated Press writer Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report from Washington.
FILE - People wade into water at Badwater Basin in Death Valley National Park, Calif., on Thursday, Feb. 22, 2024. The basin, normally a salt flat, has filled from rain over the previous few months. (AP Photo/John Locher, File)
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops says it is ending a half-century of partnerships with the federal government to serve refugees and children, saying the “heartbreaking” decision follows the Trump administration’s abrupt halt to funding for refugee resettlement.
The break will inevitably result in fewer services than what Catholic agencies were able to offer in the past to the needy, the bishops said.
“As a national effort, we simply cannot sustain the work on our own at current levels or in current form,” said Archbishop Timothy Broglio, president of the USCCB. “We will work to identify alternative means of support for the people the federal government has already admitted to these programs. We ask your prayers for the many staff and refugees impacted.”
The decision means the bishops won’t be renewing existing agreements with the federal government, the bishops said. The announcement did not say how long current agreements were scheduled to last.
Catholic bishops sued President Donald Trump's administration in February over its abrupt halt to the funding of aid provided to newly arrived refugees, saying they are owed millions already allocated by Congress to carry out resettlement aid under agreement with the federal government.
But a federal judge ruled that he couldn’t order the government to pay money due on a contract, saying a contractual dispute belongs before the Court of Federal Claims. The bishops have appealed that ruling.
Beyond that specific funding dispute is the Trump administration’s halt to all new refugee arrivals. The Catholic bishops oversaw one of 10 national agencies, most of them faith-based, which contracted with the federal government to resettle refugees who come to the U.S. legally after being vetted and approved by the federal government.
Broglio’s announcement didn’t specify what the children’s services program was.
The bishops have overseen Catholic agencies resettling displaced people for a century. In recent decades they had done so in a partnership with the U.S. government, receiving grants that covered much, though not all, of the expenses.
The Trump administration’s “decision to reduce these programs drastically forces us to reconsider the best way to serve the needs of our brothers and sisters seeking safe harbor from violence and persecution,” said Broglio, who heads the Archdiocese for the Military Services, USA.
The announcement did not specify whether the cuts would lead to any layoffs, though Broglio asked for prayers for the “many staff and refugees impacted.”
Vice President JD Vance, a Catholic convert, accused the bishops conference in January of resettling immigrants who are in the U.S. illegally in order to get millions in federal funding — an apparent reference to the resettlement program, which actually involves legally approved refugees.
The bishops noted that rather than making money on the program, they receive less in federal aid than the programs cost and need to supplement the funding with charitable dollars.
Vance followed up his criticisms by appealing to Catholic teaching as justifying immigration restrictions. That drew rejoinders not only from U.S. bishops but an implicit rebuke from Pope Francis, who said Christian charity requires helping those in need, not just those in one’s closest circles.
Associated Press religion coverage receives support through the AP’s collaboration with The Conversation US, with funding from Lilly Endowment Inc. The AP is solely responsible for this content.
Catholic bishops lead a march in solidarity with migrants, Monday, March 24, 2025, in downtown El Paso, Texas. (AP Photo/Andres Leighton)
