At the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing, Senator Klobuchar asked Secretary Perdue the status of permitting website failures that have caused significant hardship for residents, tourists, and small businesses alike 

Last week, after the Forest Service announced the website would not be restored until March 4, Senators Klobuchar and Smith sent a letter asking that Secretary give his full attention to fixing this matter 

WASHINGTON - U.S. Senator Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) received a commitment from Secretary Perdue that the U.S. Forest Service will meet the new deadline to restore the Boundary Waters Permitting Website. Today, at the Senate Agriculture Committee hearing Senator Klobuchar asked Secretary Perdue about the status of permitting website failures that have caused significant hardship for residents, tourists, and small businesses alike. Last week, after the Forest Service announced the website would not be restored until March 4, Senators Klobuchar and Smith sent a letter asking that Secretary give his full attention to fixing this matter.

“An issue Senator Smith and I have been working on, which is the problems with the website with the reservation system for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area, which is under your jurisdiction,” said Klobuchar. “What is being done to ensure that the reservation system will be operational and functioning in a more reliable manner by the deadline of March 4?”

“I am told that we will meet that deadline. Unfortunately, we did not meet the deadline for recreation.gov that is so important in your part of the world and many others, from reservations to our beautiful public lands and all those things that people can enjoy. They’re telling me that it was literally an IT crash – there was code that was not done well in the initial, so we hope to have that done,” responded Secretary Perdue.

Video of Klobuchar’s questioning can be found here.

Klobuchar and Smith—who last month called on the U.S. Forest Service to address technical difficulties with the new online reservation system for distributing BWCAW permits—called the delayed relaunch “unacceptable,” and said they will continue to press the Trump Administration for answers.

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