[Congressional Bills 113th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 1459 Introduced in House (IH)]

113th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                H. R. 1459

To ensure that the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 applies to 
     the declaration of national monuments, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 10, 2013

 Mr. Bishop of Utah (for himself, Mr. Gosar, Mr. Chaffetz, Mr. Walden, 
 Mr. Pearce, Mrs. Lummis, Mr. Amodei, and Mr. Stewart) introduced the 
    following bill; which was referred to the Committee on Natural 
                               Resources

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
To ensure that the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 applies to 
     the declaration of national monuments, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Ensuring Public Involvement in the 
Creation of National Monuments Act''.

SEC. 2. NEPA APPLICABILITY TO NATIONAL MONUMENT DECLARATIONS.

    Section 2 of the Act of June 8, 1906 (16 U.S.C. 431; commonly known 
as the ``Antiquities Act of 1906'') is amended--
            (1) by striking ``That the President'' and inserting the 
        following:
    ``(a) That the President'';
            (2) by striking ``discretion, to declare'' and inserting 
        ``discretion, subject to the National Environmental Policy Act 
        of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.), to declare'';
            (3) by inserting before the final period the following ``. 
        No more than one declaration shall be made in a State during 
        any presidential four-year term of office without an express 
        Act of Congress''; and
            (4) by adding at the end the following:
    ``(b) A declaration under this section shall--
            ``(1) not include private property without the informed 
        written consent of the owner of the private property affected 
        by the declaration;
            ``(2) be considered a major Federal action under the 
        National Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et 
        seq.), if it affects more than 5,000 acres;
            ``(3) be categorically excluded under the National 
        Environmental Policy Act of 1969 (42 U.S.C. 4321 et seq.) and 
        expire three years after the date of the declaration (unless 
        specifically designated as a monument by Federal law), if it 
        affects 5,000 acres or less; and
            ``(4) be followed by a feasibility study that includes an 
        estimate of the costs associated with managing the monument in 
        perpetuity, including any loss of Federal and State revenue, 
        which shall be submitted to the Committee on Natural Resources 
        of the House of Representatives and the Committee on Energy and 
        Natural Resources of the Senate and made available on the 
        website of the Department of the Interior not later than one 
        year after the date of the declaration.''.
                                 <all>