WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans are moving to restrict the president’s ability to protect millions of acres of federal land considered historic, geographically significant or culturally important.
Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, said presidents of both parties have misused the 1906 Antiquities Act to create oversized monuments that hinder energy development, grazing and other uses. Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, introduced a bill that would prevent presidents from designating monuments larger than 85,000 acres and grant veto power to states and local officials for monuments larger than 10,000 acres.
The GOP-controlled resources panel approved the bill Wednesday, 23-17, sending it to the House floor.
“No longer would we have to blindly trust any president to do the right thing,” Bishop said, adding that his bill “modernizes the law to restore its intent, allowing for the protection of actual antiquities without disenfranchisement of local voices and perspectives.”
The bill comes as Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke has recommended that four large national monuments in the West be reduced in size, potentially opening hundreds of thousands of acres to mining and logging.