CHARLESTON — With the U.S. Senate no closer to a deal to keep the federal government funded and the shutdown wrapping up its second week, Gov. Patrick Morrisey said West Virginia is willing to foot the bill to keep its two national parks open until the end of the month.

In a press conference Tuesday morning, Morrisey said a deal with the U.S. Department of the Interior and the National Park Service to extend the state’s donor agreement to operate the visitors centers and services at the Harpers Ferry National Historical Park and the New River Gorge National Park and Preserve would be announced in the next couple of days.

“The political gridlock in Washington, it’s hurting a lot of people, but we took swift action in one area where we felt we could mitigate the effects of the shutdown, and that’s protecting our beautiful national parks,” Morrisey said. “I think the national park system is a great gem for our country, But boy, our New River Gorge Park and Harpers Ferry, they’re some of the finest. So, I hope people have a chance to get out and take advantage of the amazing parks that we have.”

The state signed a two-week donor agreement with NPS that went into effect Oct. 3 to keep the visitors centers and services at both parks operational for at least two weeks, making it the first state in the nation to do so. The state agreed to pay $98,000 to keep the parks functioning during that two-week period.

“Right now, we’re working on the paperwork with the National Parks to make sure that we can extend that agreement until the end of the month if it’s needed,” Morrisey said. “We’re hopeful that we can have that final deal announced in the next day or two.”

Morrisey said keeping the parks open and funded is costing the state approximately $7,000 per day. But the economic effects of keeping the parks shut down would be far more harmful.

According to the Department of Tourism, the economic impact of tourism in West Virginia was $9.1 billion, exceeding previous records, and supports more than 60,000 jobs. Last year, Harpers Ferry National Historical Park saw nearly 490,000 visitors, or a 15% increase over the past two years, with 70,000 visitors last October.

The New River Gorge National Park alone brought in more than 200,000 visitors last October and 1.8 million visitors in 2024 alone – a 50% increase since New River Gorge became the nation’s 63rd national park in 2021. Saturday, Oct. 18, is also Bridge Day, the annual event that brings BASE Jumpers to the New River Gorge Bridge, the longest steel span arch bridge in the northern hemisphere.

“We know this upcoming Saturday, Bridge Day is coming, and that’s just another huge event for tourism and local businesses alike,” Morrisey said. “Our agreement with the national parks ends on Friday night, but I want to be clear today that it’s my intent that if the federal government fails to reopen by then, I fully intend to extend that agreement and Bridge Day will go on as planned.”

Becky Sullivan, executive director of the New River Gorge Convention and Visitors Bureau, said 300 BASE jumpers and 200 repellers from 39 states have registered for Bridge Day, not counting the 500 people who registered for the 5K race across the New River Gorge Bridge Saturday morning. She said the event will bring out tens of thousands of people.

“Bridge Day has a huge economic impact on our county and our surrounding region,” Sullivan said. “The entire New River Gorge region benefits from Bridge Day. It is a huge event for our state.”

Adventures on the Gorge General Manager Tom Wagner and Haynes Mansfield, the director of sales and marketing at ACE Adventure Resort, both said keeping the New River Gorge National Park open was vitally important to the state and local economy, which rely on tourism. Both Adventures on the Gorge and ACE Adventure Resort offer camping, white water rafting, and other outdoor recreation.

“Bridge Day is one of, if not the single largest, one-day festival in the country,” Wagner said. “What you’ve got is two fabulous days here in West Virginia, which are like nowhere else in the country, and they bring visitors from all over. I can’t express enough our gratitude for the governor to make sure that Bridge Day is happening this year, and the parks are staying open. It truly shows the future of West Virginia’s economy and what can be done when we all work together.”

“If they come to an airport outside of our border, they will travel to nearly the center of the state to the New River Gorge National Park, and they’re going to drop breadcrumbs of economic benefit all along the way,” Mansfield said. “They buy lodging, they go to our local gift shops, they go to our local restaurants, they go to our gas stations, they bring outside dollars into our state that are spent every single day.”

Republicans and Democratic members of the U.S. Senate have been fighting over two separate proposals to pass a continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through Nov. 21 and provide time for Congress to pass appropriations bills to fund the government for the new fiscal year that began Oct. 1.

The Senate Republican majority want a clean CR without any add-ons, while Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., and Senate Democrats want a CR that extends post-COVID-19 Affordable Care Act subsidies that are set to expire by the end of December. Without those subsidy extensions, millions of people could lose their health insurance coverage. Senate Republicans have said they are willing to negotiate on the subsidies only once a clean CR is passed.

While voting on the two CRs is expected to continue this week, most pundits do not see the Senate coming to a deal to end the shutdown this week. In the meantime, non-essential federal workers across the nation and in West Virginia are being furloughed or even being fired, and essential federal employees and military personnel are working without pay, with the possibility of backpay being questioned.

“We know that some of these communities actually are being hurt right now by the Schumer shutdown,” Morrisey said. “We have a lot of federal employees in different parts of our state, and there’s no doubt (the shutdown) is going to have an economic effect, a negative one on West Virginia. So, I really believe that when you can at least mitigate some of the harm, it’s making a big difference.”