This week, the House Natural Resources Committee Federal Lands Subcommittee held an oversight hearing entitled “Examining the Consequences of Executive Branch Overreach of the Antiquities Act.” During the hearing, both the Chair of the Subcommittee, Rep. Tom McClintock, and the Chair of the full Committee, Rep. Bob Bishop, expressed the need for Congress to place new limitations on the ability for the President to designation national monuments.
The Ranking Member of the full Committee, Rep Raul Grijalva, continued to express his support for maintaining the Antiquities Act, as well as raised the issue of whether or not one President could repeal monument designations from his predecessor. A good portion of the hearing was spent discussing the Katahdin Woods and Waters National Monument in Maine. Additionally, over 400 conservation groups signed onto a letter to the President, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, and Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, expressing opposition to changes to any of the national monuments currently under review by the recent Executive Order. The letter also praised the Antiquities Act as “one of our nation’s most critical conversation tools.”