The Republican staff of the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee circulated a David Letterman-style top 10 list Tuesday afternoon of “reasons the government shutdown isn’t all bad.”

The list focuses on what the GOP calls abuses by the Obama administration, including by the Environmental Protection Agency, praising the furlough of employees of that agency.

The panel’s ranking member is Sen. David Vitter. The Louisiana Republican’s namesake amendment regarding the ability of members of Congress and their staffs to get employer contributions on the Obamacare exchanges has been a sticking point throughout negotiations over raising the debt limit and passing a continuing resolution.

Versions of the Vitter proposal have surfaced in plans floated by House Republicans, including the most recent offering.

The list from the Environment and Public Works Republicans appears below (with further context on each of their points on the committee website):

10. Approximately 15,000 EPA employees are furloughed, making it less likely fake CIA agents at EPA will be ripping off the taxpayer.

9. EPA doesn’t have the manpower to raid Alaska mines with armed guards.

8. Fewer bureaucrats at the EPA makes it less likely that they’ll make up science on new regulations.

7. Former Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar is worried about oil production in the Gulf of Mexico.

6. World War II veterans have stormed the Normandy beaches again. (Sadly, they had to, in order to gain access to their own memorial.)

5. EPA doesn’t have the manpower to unilaterally expand its jurisdiction under the Clean Water Act.

4. U.S. Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse (D-R.I.) still finds time on the Senate floor to make inaccurate claims about green jobs. (This is a positive, right . . . NOT!)

3. Far-left environmentalists prove themselves hypocrites again: They criticize continuing oil and gas production on federal lands during the shutdown but issue no call to halt wind turbines.

2. President Obama has a temporary excuse for his stonewalling on FOIA and other transparency demands of the Administration.

1. Richard Windsor has been furloughed — for good!