House Dems urge Obama admin to bypass 'partisan' Congress, protect lands

E&E News
Scott Streater, E&E reporter
January 24, 2014

A coalition of 109 House Democrats is urging Interior Secretary Sally Jewell to push the president to use his executive authority to bypass a deeply divided Congress and designate more national monuments.

Led by Reps. Peter DeFazio of Oregon and Raúl Grijalva of Arizona, the top Democrats on the Natural Resources Committee and the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation, respectively, the group submitted a letter today to Jewell urging the president to use the Antiquities Act of 1906 to designate more national monuments.

In the four-paragraph letter, signed by more than half the House Democratic Caucus, including pro-energy Democrats like California Rep. Jim Costa, they wrote that in the current partisan environment, "it's becoming nearly impossible for Congress to make critical conservation decisions."

"The 112th Congress was the first Congress in 40 years that failed to permanently protect any of America's treasured landscapes," they wrote. "The current Congress is on a path to repeat that abysmal record."

The Democrats' letter also noted there are currently 37 land conservation designation bills before Congress "that have broad public support." But to date, eight of the proposals have had hearings before the Natural Resources Committee, and one of the eight was approved by the House -- California Rep. Jared Huffman's (D) H.R. 1411, which would add the Point Arena-Stornetta Public Lands to the California Coastal National Monument.

"Unfortunately, Congress is failing to act," they wrote.

Earlier this month, E&E Daily obtained a draft copy of the letter and reported that DeFazio and Grijalva planned to lobby Jewell to push the president to designate more national monuments (E&E Daily, Jan. 9).

The draft letter sparked a critical response from Republican leaders in the Congressional Western Caucus, who have long opposed the use of the Antiquities Act to designate national monuments. The caucus argued at the time that Republicans and Democrats in Congress have legislated protections for 1,830 landscapes covering 265 million acres.

Today’s letter prompted more of the same.

"It's disappointing that Democrats seem to be calling it quits on the 113th Congress," said Melissa Subbotin, a spokeswoman for Rep. Rob Bishop (R-Utah), chairman of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation. "We have held hearings on multiple conservation bills, passed wilderness and national monument bills on the House floor, and Chairman Hastings has publicly stated that more conservation bills will move in 2014. We've got lots of work to do, and it's disappointing House Democrats are throwing in the towel."

The use of the Antiquities Act to bypass Congress and protect landscapes has been extremely controversial, and members of both the House and Senate have proposed legislation that would restrict the president's ability to do so in the future.

In today's letter, the Democratic members noted an April 2013 hearing before the Subcommittee on Public Lands and Environmental Regulation "on a suite of bills designed to dilute the Presidential authority outlined in the Antiquities Act. The theme of the hearing was overreach with a strong emphasis placed on the need to make the National Monument process more inclusive by requiring Congressional approval. As you know, Congress already has the opportunity to take the lead but is choosing to shun this role."

They concluded, "When Congress is unable to advance conservation legislation, the importance of the Antiquities Act is increasingly apparent."

The Interior Department confirmed today that it has received the letter and that it is under review, said Jessica Kershaw, an agency spokeswoman.

Jewell today visited the Organ Mountains region of southern New Mexico with the state's Democratic Sens. Tom Udall and Martin Heinrich. The senators in December introduced S. 1805, which would designate the 500,000-acre Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument, including 240,000 acres of wilderness (Greenwire, Jan. 22).

A broad coalition of conservationists, sportsmen, Hispanic groups and businesses has lobbied Obama to designate the area as a national monument.

Jewell said during a speech last year to the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., that Obama would take executive action to protect the nation's treasured lands if Congress failed to act (E&ENews PM, Oct. 31, 2013).

Obama has used his authority under the Antiquities Act to bypass Congress and establish nine national monuments, including the César E. Chávez National Monument in California and the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in northern New Mexico.

Some conservation leaders praised the letter from House Democrats to Jewell as a positive -- and perhaps necessary -- step forward to protect sensitive landscapes.

"The Antiquities Act is a historically valid, time-tested and locally supported approach to enhancing our nation's system of wild public lands," said Matt Keller, director of the Wilderness Society's national monument campaign in Durango, Colo.

"With the recent government shutdown and repeated budget cuts, Americans are thinking more than ever about how fortunate this nation is to have parks and protected landscapes that tell our collective stories," Keller added. "These are places that strengthen local economies, teach our children about our national values and protect the human record of our ancestors on the land."