A House Natural Resources hearing intended to showcase plans for the nation’s semiquincentennial devolved into a forum on the Trump administration’s recent efforts to purge national parks of negative history.
Democrats dominated Tuesday’s nearly three-hour Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations hearing convened by Chair Paul Gosar (R-Ariz.) with warnings that the celebration of America’s 250th anniversary is being overshadowed by the Trump administration’s removals of U.S. history and science exhibits at national parks.
“How the hell do we know how far we’ve come if we erase the history? How is that patriotic?” asked Oregon Democratic Rep. Val Hoyle, during a terse exchange with a Republican colleague.
Democrats also used the session to repeatedly slam the Trump administration for using a National Park Service nonprofit to gather anonymous donations for the president’s suite of celebrations for the country’s 250th anniversary.
