House approves GOP bill rolling back presidential powers

E&E News
By Phil Taylor
March 27, 2014

Along mostly party lines, the House yesterday voted to greatly curtail presidents' authority to designate national monuments that protect public lands from mineral development and other impacts.

Republicans said H.R. 1459 would ensure that the public has a say in what lands get protected, while Democrats blasted the measure as a red herring that would essentially block the creation of new national monuments and parks.

The chamber approved the measure 222-201, with three Democrats joining all but 10 Republicans in support.

Dissenting Republicans were Rodney Davis of Illinois; Michael Fitzpatrick, Jim Gerlach and Patrick Meehan of Pennsylvania; Chris Gibson, Michael Grimm and Peter King of New York; Frank LoBiondo of New Jersey; Erik Paulsen of Minnesota; and Dave Reichert of Washington. Democrats who voted in favor were Henry Cuellar of Texas, Jim Matheson of Utah and Mike McIntyre of North Carolina.

"Today's bill is a win for the American people," said Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), the bill's sponsor. "It's common sense that the public should be involved regardless of whether or not Congress or the president initiates the designation."

The bill would require the president to conduct a National Environmental Policy Act review before designating monuments more than 5,000 acres in size, while limiting presidents to one designation per state for each four-year term. The president could issue emergency proclamations for smaller monuments, but those would still require either congressional approval or a NEPA review within three years.

The House yesterday by voice vote adopted an amendment by Rep. Ron Barber (D-Ariz.) to require that feasibility studies on the costs of designating monuments also take into consideration the tourism dollars they create.

It rejected 197-223 an amendment by Rep. Niki Tsongas (D-Mass.) to preserve the president's ability to protect military sites regardless of their size.

Bishop said the amendment was "well intentioned" but undermined the bill's intent to promote public input.

Democrats blasted the bill as an attempt to spike the president's ability to swiftly protect at-risk landscapes at a time when Congress is woefully slow at protecting lands itself.

"This bill is simply pandering to the ideologues that disagree with the majority of Americans who want to protect our public lands for future generations," said Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.).

Conservationists, historic preservationists, sportsmen and minority groups were likewise incensed, though some were encouraged by the relatively close vote and the defection of 10 Republicans.

"There is strong bipartisan opposition to this ill-conceived legislation," said Alan Rowsome, senior government affairs director for the Wilderness Society. "Undermining the Antiquities Act is completely out of step with Americans' overwhelming support for this bedrock law."

The Coalition of National Park Service Retirees issued a statement yesterday saying "Teddy Roosevelt wept," referring to the president who signed the 1906 Antiquities Act and used it to designate 18 national monuments.

"For those of us who have worked for years to keep America's national parks and monuments truly bipartisan and nonpolitical, today's vote is a tragic development," said Maureen Finnerty, the former superintendent of Everglades and Olympic national parks. "Our national parks and monuments are being treated as a political football that is being kicked around for the sake of nothing more than crass political posturing."

But Bishop said the past three presidents have abused the act by failing to protect places at imminent risk and by failing to limit monuments to the smallest footprint possible, as the law requires.

He said county commissioners in Utah live in "constant fear" that the president with the stroke of a pen could lock up lands they want kept available for mineral development or grazing. The Clinton administration's designation -- with virtually no public input -- of the 1.7-million-acre Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah, he said, is a perfect example.

"It is very clear we are doing [designations] differently than in the past," he said, calling his bill "the most moderate approach" to reform the act that the House will see. "It is being used as a political weapon, a gotcha effort, a power play."

Bishop also shot back at critics' claims that the bill would block the creation of national parks, arguing that presidents never had the authority to create parks to begin with -- Congress does.

His bill was backed strongly by motorized recreation enthusiasts and ranchers.

Grand Staircase notwithstanding, Democrats yesterday took to the floor to argue that the Obama administration has designated monuments collaboratively and transparently.

"The administration, including the president and the secretary of Interior ... agreed to make sure public input was a top priority in the decision to designate Fort Monroe," said Rep. Robert Scott (D-Va.), referring to Obama's designation in late 2011 of the Civil War-era fort in Virginia, his first national monument.

Rep. Ben Ray Luján (D-N.M.) called Obama's designation of the 243,000-acre Rio Grande del Norte monument in New Mexico a year ago "the result [of] years of work and the community coming to find consensus on a path forward that respects our traditions and respects our culture."

"A strong coalition worked with the administration of [former Interior] Secretary [Ken] Salazar to show that protecting this land needed to be a top priority," he said.

Bishop said such protections should still undergo a full NEPA review or be approved by Congress.

Congress since 2009 has only passed one conservation bill, which designated wilderness at Michigan's Sleeping Bear Dunes National Lakeshore earlier this month.

Bishop's bill is opposed strongly by the Obama administration and is not expected to advance in the Senate.