PUBLIC LANDS: Republicans aim to stymie future monument designations
Michelle Merlin, E&E reporter
E&E: Monday, April 15, 2013
States' rights Republicans are responding to President Obama's recent designation of five new national monuments with a series of bills aimed at preventing him from doing it again.
Claiming that the power to protect land steps on states' rights, House members introduced several billsrestricting the president's ability to establish national parks or monuments. Some of the bills will be the subject of a House Natural Resources Committee hearing this week.
"Local citizens and state governments should have a voice in the process of designating new national monuments in their backyards," said a spokesman for Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-N.C.), who proposed a bill (H.R. 382) requiring designations to earn state approval. "'Preserve Land Freedom for Americans Act' will ensure states have a say, instead of leaving the federal government to make those decisions unilaterally and without appropriate input."
At issue is the Antiquities Act of 1906, a law that gives the president power to restrict the use of federally owned land. Conservationists have been pressuring Obama to protect lands under the act to compensate for his authorization of oil and gas development in other areas.
But Republicans are concerned that the act gives the president too much power. That's why the Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation will consider Foxx's bill along with H.R. 250, by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), which would amend the Antiquities Act to make all presidential declarations made under it subject to congressional approval.
Obama used his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the five national monuments in March (E&ENews PM, March 25).
The push by congressional conservatives to keep presidential authority out of states echoes actions of their home-state legislatures. New Mexico, Utah and Idaho have all recently considered bills demanding that the federal government relinquish its lands to the states. Individual members of the subcommittee proposed bills that would restrict the ability of the president to extend or establish national monuments in Utah, New Mexico, Montana, Nevada and Idaho without congressional approval.
The Western Caucus recently scored a win in the land rights debate. The group issued an angry letter when it learned about the National Blueways System, a designation program that recognizes communities for collaboration in conservation efforts but has no money or power to regulate them. Former Interior Secretary Ken Salazar agreed not to designate any areas without a letter of support from the state (E&ENews PM, April 9).
