This is an archived article that was published on sltrib.com in 2013, and information in the article may be outdated. It is provided only for personal research purposes and may not be reprinted.
Washington • Interior Secretary Sally Jewell told a Senate committee on Tuesday that the automatic spending cuts now hitting her budget are distracting the department from carrying out its mission.
"I know it's not where you want us to go; it's not where we want to go," Jewell told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee.
"It's very, very difficult," Jewell continued. "It's hard on employees who are hard working, to all the things that you care about as well. They're really taking it on the chin. It's just very, very difficult to carry out the mission the way it is affected."
Automatic budget cuts of about 10 percent hit most federal agencies after Congress failed to pass a stopgap measure.
National park officials in Utah previously said that the cuts could be absorbed without visitors seeing much of an impact, although seasonal openings were delayed and visitor hours scaled down in many national parks and monuments in the region.