Visitor concessions like souvenir shops, lodging, transportation, equipment rental and food services will suffer from the decrease in tourism caused by the limitation in park hours.

"There is a breaking point and once we reach that and services begin to suffer, this will be directly reflected in the experience our visitors are having and that poses the greatest danger -- when we can no longer deliver on the promised experience," Stoddard says.

But economist Isabelle Sawhill from the Brookings Institution says the cuts in cases like this aren't that significant.

"I think almost any organization can sustain a 5% cut in their budget and not have it interfere with their basic mission," she says.

Garder disagreed.

"The budgeting process is completely broken. It's Congress' job to figure out where investments should be made and where agencies should be cut, it's a mindless process and it's not meant to become policy.