Republican-backed legislation in the U.S. Congress would make it harder for the government to designate new national monuments.
The proposed Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act, sponsored by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks, R-Iowa, would eliminate the presidential authority to designate national monuments on public lands without the approval of Congress. That approval would have to come within six months of the designation or possibly even earlier if Congress’ session ends first. If the designation does not get support from Congress, no lands within its boundaries could be included in future monument designations for 25 years.
The most common way for a national monument to receive designation is for a president to designate it as one.
The House Committee on Natural Resources’ Subcommittee on Federal Lands discussed this legislation on Wednesday.
“This Act has never been updated since 1906 and I think that we can all agree that the United States has drastically changed and progressed since Teddy Roosevelt was president,” Miller-Meeks said.
This practice received increased attention under President Donald Trump when Republicans sought to undo former monument designations, including the sacred ancestral homeland of Navajo and Pueblo people. Trump’s effort led to a review of more than two decades of monument designations, including the designation of Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument near Las Cruces. Ultimately, Trump reduced the size of Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments, both in Utah. President Joe Biden later restored those monuments to their original boundaries.
Related: What does Utah have to do with NM’s national monuments?
In addition to restoring the boundaries of those national monuments, Biden used the Antiquities Act to protect the Emmett Till and Mamie Till-Mobley National Monument in Mississippi and the Baaj Nwaavjo I’tah Kukveni-Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument in Arizona.
During the hearing, ranking member Rep. Joe Neguse, a Democrat from Colorado, pointed out that, since the Antiquities Act became law in 1906, new national monuments have been created under all but three presidents. The three presidents who chose not to designate any national monuments were Richard Nixon, Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush. Trump used the Antiquities Act to designate Camp Nelson National Monument.
National monuments also benefit local economies by bringing in tourism dollars and supporting job creation. Some of the most popular national parks, including Grand Canyon and Zion, started as national monuments designated under the Antiquities Act.
Neguse said the legislation would conflict with the congressional intent behind the Antiquities Act and runs contrary to public opinion. Polls have shown that the public tends to support national monuments.
“Monuments designated through the Antiquities Act prioritize the protection of naturally culturally and historically significant places,” he said.
Neguse argued that the Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act “would roll back over 100 years, about that a century, of precedent and congressional intent, threatening our ability to protect these lands and recognize the cultural value that they often hold for Indigenous communities in particular.”
He said the Antiquities Act passed in 1906 as a way of ensuring lands and resources were protected by allowing a president to bypass congressional gridlock.
Republicans who oppose the use of the Antiquities Act to create national monuments say that it allows presidents to unilaterally set aside lands for conservation purposes even when local communities are against the designation. However, the most controversial national monument designations have come as a result of petitions and efforts by local community members. Bears Ears National Monument is an example of one of these controversial designations. Indigenous advocates, tribes and Pueblos who either currently call the region home or consider it their ancestral homeland petitioned President Barack Obama to protect it as a national monument; however, other community members opposed in part due to fears that it would restrict the ability to expand extraction of fossil fuels or uranium. Some opponents also said that the Bears Ears designation was too big and that they could support a smaller national monument.
