{"id":2307347,"date":"2024-07-24T12:33:01","date_gmt":"2024-07-24T16:33:01","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-aims-to-reform-antiquities-act-block-federal-land-grabs\/"},"modified":"2024-07-24T12:38:17","modified_gmt":"2024-07-24T16:38:17","slug":"gop-aims-to-reform-antiquities-act-block-federal-land-grabs","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/gop-aims-to-reform-antiquities-act-block-federal-land-grabs\/","title":{"rendered":"GOP Aims To Reform Antiquities Act, Block Federal Land Grabs"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fgop-aims-to-reform-antiquities-act-block-federal-land-grabs%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=2307347&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><p>House Republicans \u200bare working \u200dto reform the Antiquities Act \u200cto require congressional approval for new national monuments designated by the president before the end of their term. This comes as concerns grow that President Biden\u2064 may designate millions of acres of\u200d public lands as monuments in his\u2063 final months in office. \u2063The Antiquities \u200bAct, established in 1906, allows presidents to protect sites\u200d of \u200bHistorical or scientific significance\u2064 by designating\u200b them as national monuments without the need for congressional approval.<\/p>\n<p>Republicans argue that this process of monument designation should\u200c involve input from local communities and elected officials, and that requiring congressional approval would ensure transparency and\u2062 accountability\u2062 in the\u2063 decision-making process. They also believe that\u2064 giving Congress a \u200bsay in the designation \u200dof national \u2064monuments would \u2062prevent future \u2064presidents from abusing their \u200bauthority to lock up large swaths of public lands.<\/p>\n<p>Critics, however, argue that reforming the\u2062 Antiquities Act would \u2062undermine the president&#8217;s ability to protect important cultural and natural resources in \u200ba timely manner. They argue that the Act has been instrumental in \u200cpreserving \u200ciconic landscapes \u200dsuch as the Grand Canyon and the Statue of Liberty,\u2063 and that requiring congressional approval would politicize the designation process and potentially delay the protection \u200bof threatened\u2063 areas.<\/p>\n<p>The debate over reforming the Antiquities Act reflects broader disagreements over the balance between conservation and economic development on public lands. While Republicans see the\u2062 Act as a tool for federal overreach \u2062and restriction of land use, Democrats and environmentalists\u200d view\u200d it \u200das a vital mechanism for safeguarding America&#8217;s natural and cultural heritage \u200cfor future generations. As the Biden administration \u2062considers\u2062 potential monument designations,\u2063 the fate of the Antiquities Act and the future of \u2063public lands conservation remain hotly contested issues \u2064in \u200dAmerican politics.  <\/p>\n<p class=\"readmore\">\n    <button onclick=\"showReadMore()\" id=\"readmorebtn\">Read more&#8230;<\/button>\n<\/p>\n<hr id=\"line\">\n<span id=\"more\"><\/p>\n<div>\n<p>House Republicans are ramping up efforts to reform the Antiquities Act six months before the conclusion of the Biden administration, when many fear the retiring president will rope off millions more acres of public lands with monument protections on his way out of office.<\/p>\n<p>On Tuesday, the Congressional Western Caucus held a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/live\/aP1YI_wcOok\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">forum<\/a> to discuss the Congressional Oversight of the Antiquities Act, <a href=\"https:\/\/millermeeks.house.gov\/media\/press-releases\/miller-meeks-introduces-congressional-oversight-antiquities-act-0\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">introduced<\/a> by Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks last September. The bill requires congressional approval of new national monuments designated by the president within six months of the establishing order or the end of the incumbent congressional term.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I don&rsquo;t know what to expect,&rdquo; Western Caucus Vice Chair Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, told The Federalist, but she added that new monument protections &ldquo;do tend to happen at the end of Democrat administrations.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Since the Antiquities Act became law in 1906, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.npca.org\/articles\/3327-which-presidents-have-created-the-most-national-monuments\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">presidents<\/a> have used their executive authority to bypass Congress in order to protect specific sites of cultural and historic significance. President Theodore Roosevelt was the first to use the power with the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.theodorerooseveltcenter.org\/Research\/Digital-Library\/Record?libID=o293443\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">designation<\/a> of roughly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nps.gov\/deto\/planyourvisit\/placestogo.htm#:~:text=Devils%20Tower%20National%20Monument%20is,and%20the%20visitor%20center%20hub.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1,300<\/a> acres surrounding Devil&rsquo;s Tower in Wyoming as a protected monument. The century-old law, however, has been increasingly abused by far-left administrations eager to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/21-house-republicans-vote-against-awarding-medals-to-all-police-who-were-at-january-6-riot\/\" title=\"21 House Republicans Vote Against Awarding Medals To All Police Who Were At January 6 Riot\">score cheap political points<\/a> with their so-called environmentalist base, who demand large swaths of public land remain untouched.<\/p>\n<p>In May, President Joe Biden expanded two national monuments in California by more than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2024\/05\/06\/what-they-are-saying-president-biden-expands-san-gabriel-mountains-national-monument-and-berryessa-snow-mountain-national-monument\/\">120,000<\/a> acres, an area larger than that of the state&rsquo;s <a href=\"http:\/\/Lassen%20Volcanic%20National%20Park\">Lassen Volcanic National Park<\/a>. While a&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.doi.gov\/blog\/americas-public-lands-explained\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">national park<\/a>&nbsp;is a large area protected by an act of Congress, land with a &ldquo;national monument&rdquo; status is supposed to protect a &ldquo;specific natural, cultural or historic feature.&rdquo; The 1906 law, however,&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.law.cornell.edu\/uscode\/text\/54\/320301\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">requires<\/a>&nbsp;the area preserved be &ldquo;the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/utah-sues-biden-administration-over-aggressive-land-grab-at-two-national-monuments\/\" title=\"Utah Sues Biden Administration Over Aggressive Land Grab At Two National Monuments\">smallest area compatible<\/a> with the proper care and management of the objects to be protected.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Lawmakers on Tuesday heard from a panel of three witnesses who testified about responsible land management interrupted by colossal new monuments that violate the &ldquo;smallest area compatible&rdquo; mandate embedded in the 1906 legislation. Megan Jenkins of the Pacific Legal Foundation told lawmakers &ldquo;90 percent of all acres designated&rdquo; under the law &ldquo;were set aside since the year 2000.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;In many cases, they are as large or larger than U.S. states,&rdquo; she added.<\/p>\n<p>In her Tuesday testimony, Jenkins highlighted the land area covered by President Biden&rsquo;s <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/10\/13\/why-joe-bidens-expansion-of-bears-ears-national-monument-is-an-aggressive-land-grab\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">reinstatement<\/a> of the Obama-era boundaries of the Bears Ears National Monument in southern Utah. Biden promptly reversed his Republican predecessor&rsquo;s decision to trim Bears Ears and the nearby Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah to the &ldquo;smallest area compatible&rdquo; with preservation during the first year of the new administration. Together, the two monuments cover more than 3 million acres, or an area <a href=\"https:\/\/parksexpert.com\/national-parks-by-size\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">larger<\/a> than Yellowstone National Park.<\/p>\n<p>The radical use of the Antiquities Act to <a href=\"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/bidens-designation-of-million-acre-monument-is-blatant-abuse-of-presidential-power\/\" title=\"Biden&#039;s Monument Designation: Clear Presidential Power Abuse\">establish quasi-national parks<\/a>, Rep. Maloy (whose district includes Grand Staircase-Escalante in southern Utah) told The Federalist, demonstrates that presidents &ldquo;can&rsquo;t be trusted with that kind of power.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;What these maps don&rsquo;t show are the real people who are affected by national monument designations,&rdquo; Jenkins said, sharing the story of a ranching family in Arizona whose access to public lands for cattle grazing was jeopardized by President Biden&rsquo;s protection of nearly <a href=\"https:\/\/www.whitehouse.gov\/briefing-room\/statements-releases\/2023\/08\/08\/fact-sheet-president-biden-designates-baaj-nwaavjo-itah-kukveni-ancestral-footprints-of-the-grand-canyon-national-monument\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">1 million<\/a> acres under Ancestral Footprints of the Grand Canyon National Monument last summer. The Pacific Legal Foundation is now <a href=\"https:\/\/pacificlegal.org\/case\/antiquities-act-grand-canyon\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">suing<\/a> the administration on behalf of the Heaton family, which has been ranching on both public and private land for six generations.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m going to tell you all the truth,&rdquo; said southern Utah&rsquo;s Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollock at the forum. &ldquo;The truth is the Antiquities Act has been weaponized, and the other side better wake up sometime and realize whatever they can do to us, we can do to them.&rdquo;<\/p>\n<p>Pollock went on to outline the myriad public-land failures that have resulted from far-left efforts to leave lands unmanaged in the name of conservation.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;If they&rsquo;re the true environmentalists, how come they destroy everything they try to protect?&rdquo; Pollock said, citing, for example, the proliferation of massive forest fires in the aftermath of the logging industry&rsquo;s destruction. Sustainable timber harvesting clears forests of excess wood fuels now <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2021\/09\/11\/how-much-is-gavin-newsom-to-blame-for-californias-wildfires\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">piling up<\/a> in the nation&rsquo;s forests as massive tinderboxes waiting to go up in flames.<\/p>\n<p>Environmental policymakers are now also confronting the consequences of blaming the timber industry twenty years ago for the decline in spotted owl populations across the Pacific Northwest, rather than a rival bird. Earlier this month, federal officials <a href=\"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/2024\/07\/08\/biden-admin-plans-to-kill-hundreds-of-thousands-of-owls-in-the-name-of-conservation\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noreferrer noopener\">revealed<\/a> plans to kill nearly half a million barred owls found to be encroaching on the spotted owls&rsquo; territory.<\/p>\n<p>&ldquo;It&rsquo;s so unnecessary what they did to the logging industry,&rdquo; Trump&rsquo;s Director for the Bureau of Land Management William Perry Pendley told The Federalist. &ldquo;A few years ago, these experts were saying, &lsquo;It&rsquo;s logging.&rsquo; &hellip; Nobody was saying, &lsquo;Maybe it was logging,&rsquo; or &lsquo;Maybe it was the barred owl.&rsquo; Now they&rsquo;re saying, &lsquo;Oh sorry, my bad.&#8217;&rdquo;<\/p>\n<hr>\n<p>      Tristan Justice is the western correspondent for The Federalist and the author of Social Justice Redux, a conservative newsletter on culture, health, and wellness. He has also written for The Washington Examiner and The Daily Signal. His work has also been featured in Real Clear Politics and Fox News. Tristan graduated from George Washington University where he majored in political science and minored in journalism. Follow him on Twitter at @JusticeTristan or contact him at Tristan@thefederalist.com. Sign up for Tristan&#8217;s email newsletter <a href=\"https:\/\/socialjusticeredux.substack.com\/about\">here<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n<p><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>House Republicans \u200bare working \u200dto reform the Antiquities Act \u200cto require congressional approval for new national monuments designated by the president before the end of their term. This comes as concerns grow that President Biden\u2064 may designate millions of acres of\u200d public lands as monuments in his\u2063 final months in office. \u2063The Antiquities \u200bAct, established &hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":494,"featured_media":2307348,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/31828930751_b269f4a5af_k-e1721831578526.jpg","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[36004,17353,36005,6203,4353],"class_list":["post-2307347","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","tag-antiquities-act","tag-conservation","tag-federal-land-grabs","tag-gop","tag-reform"],"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/thefederalist.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/07\/31828930751_b269f4a5af_k-e1721831578526.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307347","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/494"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2307347"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2307347\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2307348"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2307347"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2307347"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2307347"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}