Western Republicans Seek To Alter National Monuments Law 

JOHN HEILPRIN, Associated Press Writer
Wednesday, February 14, 2001 
©2001 Associated Press 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Western Republicans will soon attempt to 
scale back the 1906 law used by President Clinton to designate and expand 
national monuments, House Resources Committee Chairman Jim Hansen said 
Wednesday. 

The Utah Republican said legislation will be introduced later this month 
allowing Congress to overturn monument designations. In a letter to 16 House 
members, Hansen also asked for information on how people in their districts 
view the Clinton-designations. 

``It's an attempt to have local people have input,'' Hansen said in an 
interview. ``We're not trying to undo anything.'' 

A draft of the National Monument Fairness Act of 2001, which will be sponsored 
by Hansen and Rep. Mike Simpson, R-Idaho, would amend the 1906 Antiquities Act 
to say that any presidential monument designation must be approved by Congress 
within two years or it would be nullified. 

Environmentalists said Hansen's proposed legislation would emasculate the 1906 
law. 

``It pretty much guts the president's authority to protect important cultural 
and environmental treasures on public lands,'' said David Alberswerth, a 
public lands expert for The Wilderness Society. 

Interior Secretary Gale Norton earlier this week said in an interview that her 
department also will study the 22 monument actions taken by Clinton, many of 
them in the final months of his presidency. She said the focus of her review 
would be on ``how those lands should be managed.'' 

``I don't see us making drastic changes,'' she said. 

Hansen's proposed legislation would require that: 
--Congressional delegations and governors of states where monuments are being 
considered must be consulted ``to the extent practicable'' at least 60 days 
before any national monument proclamation. 

--Governors be given 30 days notice by a president before any monument is 
created larger than 50,000 acres or before an existing monument is enlarged by 
more than 50,000 acres. 

Clinton, in created 19 monuments and expanded three others, put more than 5.6 
million acres under federal protection, including 1.7 million acres in the 
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah. 

``Most of these designations represented a flagrant abuse of the Antiquities 
Act,'' wrote Hansen, who was outraged by the Escalante designation, which 
Clinton announced during a visit to the Grand Canyon in neighboring Arizona. 
Simpson's spokeswoman, Luci Willits, said the new bill is meant ``to address 
the unfairness'' in the law by making it a more open process. ``As we've seen 
in the past decade, it's been used as a means to avoid Congress,'' she said. 

©2001 Associated Press