Story highlights In a shutdown, nearly every nonessential function of the government closes

The new policy might help limit public reaction to a shutdown

Washington (CNN) Even if the federal government runs out of money and shuts down this weekend, the Trump administration is working to keep the gates to some national parks open.

A child stands on the barricade around the Lincoln Memorial in Washington, DC, on October 2, 2013, on the second day of the federal government shutdown. AFP Photo/Jewel Samad

That would stand in sharp contrast to the last government shutdown, in 2013, when officials closed park entrances, erected barriers around national monuments and dispatched law enforcement to turn away visitors. Among the defining images of that shutdown were children locked out of parks and veterans protesting at barricades in front of the World War II Memorial in Washington.

At the time, Republicans, who controlled the House, accused Democratic President Barack Obama of closing the parks out of "spite" as each side sought to blame the other over the funding impasse.

The new policy could limit those pictures -- and perhaps public reaction to a shutdown.

Under the new plans, public lands would "try to allow limited access wherever possible," Interior Department spokeswoman Heather Swift told CNN.

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