Ranking Member Huffman Statement on Trump’s Illegal Monument Rollback

Washington, D.C. – Today, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Jared Huffman (D-Calif.) issued the following statement after President Trump signed executive actions shrinking Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments:

“Trump has been selling out our public lands and waters since the day he took office. He opened every marine monument in the country to commercial fishing, auctioned off the Arctic Refuge for pocket change, and tried to gut the Park Service by more than a billion dollars to clear a path for selling public lands outright. Today, he illegally opened up two of the most extraordinary landscapes in America at the behest of polluting corporations who seek to ravage them for short-term profits.

“Tribes fought for generations to protect Bears Ears and they finally won. But after Trump’s executive order, the burial grounds and sacred sites of their ancestors will be left exposed to looters and bulldozers. Outfitters, guides, and families running small hotels in towns across southern Utah built their livelihoods on people coming to see these places whole. These folks – and every American who hikes, hunts, or camps out there – now face the nightmare of losing these pristine and sacred places so that Trump can make a few of his special interest cronies a little richer.

“Most Americans, including the overwhelming majority of Republicans, want these monuments protected. Trump knows that and did it anyway, because his loyalty lies only with the billionaire class. This isn’t over though. Trump tried this once before. We fought him then, and we are ready to fight him now, because no president should have the power to give away what belongs to the American people, including future generations. Keep public lands in public hands.”

Background

The proclamations signed by President Trump today reduced Bears Ears National Monument from 1.36 million acres to 121,096 acres and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument from 1.87 million to 181,541 acres—shrinking the area of these monuments by more than 90 percent.

The cuts go far beyond what President Trump attempted in his first term, when he reduced Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by 860,000 acres and Bears Ears by 1.15 million acres.

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