(CNN) The Bureau of Land Management has shuttered much of its agency's functions during the government shutdown, but in its Alaska office, the agency used leftover funds from the past year to hold public meetings over the past week regarding an agency plan that would make Arctic land available for oil and gas leasing purchases.

The Bureau of Land Management is part of the Interior Department, which has been closed since Dec. 22.

The meetings took place Friday, Saturday and Wednesday in different cities across the state -- the last one was on day 19 of the government shutdown. A meeting scheduled for Thursday was postponed due to "weather conditions," according to a tweet from BLM Alaska.

The Bureau of Land Management's Alaska office publicized the meetings on its Facebook page

In a letter to the Interior Department, House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva criticized its decision to move forward with the meetings during a shutdown. He also commented that stakeholders were informed only the day before that the meetings would take place.

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