[Congressional Record Volume 142, Number 128 (Tuesday, September 17, 1996)]
[House]
[Page H10498]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




[[Page H10498]]



    THE PUBLIC ENTITLED TO EXPRESS VIEWS ON THE KAIPAROWITZ PLATEAU

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Under a previous order of the House, the 
gentlewoman from Utah [Ms. Greene] is recognized for 5 minutes.
  Ms. GREENE of Utah. Madam Speaker, it now appears more likely than 
not that tomorrow the President will announce that he has unilaterally 
decided to make sweeping changes to the management of nearly 2 million 
acres of Federal land. What process has brought us to this change?
  There has been no environmental impact statement, there has been no 
compliance with FLPMA, there has been no compliance with NEPA, there 
have been no public hearings, there have been no congressional 
hearings, there has been no notice in the Federal Register and no 
public comment period to allow the people of this Nation the 
opportunity to comment on the President's proposal.
  Instead, the President proposes to lock away nearly 2 million acres 
of land in Utah by Executive fiat by invoking the provision of the 1906 
act known as the Antiquities Act to declare the largest national 
monument in the lower 48 States, and in doing so, the President will 
render worthless over 200,000 acres of Utah land belonging to the 
schoolchildren of Utah since 1896, set aside by this Congress to help 
finance the public education of the schoolchildren of Utah, not to 
mention what this decision will mean to other easements and rights-of-
way existing in other lands in the area.
  What is the President doing? It appears that the President is going 
to announce the creation of a new national monument on the Kaiparowitz 
Plateau of Utah. A national monument is a hard thing to argue against, 
and indeed the Utah delegation is not necessarily opposed to the idea 
of creation of a national monument in the State of Utah on the 
Kaiparowitz Plateau. The Kaiparowitz Plateau in places is beautiful, it 
is a unique environment, and it is for that reason that portions of the 
Kaiparowitz Plateau were included in the wilderness recommendation 
submitted by the Utah delegation in both the House and Senate this 
year.
  Our disagreement with the President, however, is that it is not 
right, it is not democratic, with a small ``d,'' it is not American to 
simply decide by one individual's decision to take 2 million acres of 
land and change the way it is used and managed for this generation and 
for generations of the future without an opportunity to allow the 
public to express their views. If the situation were reversed, if the 
President was announcing that 2 million acres of Federal land by his 
decision would be thrown open to development tomorrow, we would be 
outraged, and rightfully so.

  My question to the President tonight is what is the President afraid 
of? What is he so afraid of in his proposal that he has not allowed the 
Governor or the two Senators and the elected Representatives of the 
people of Utah to even see this proposal less than 24 hours before he 
intends to make it? Why will not the President allow the people of this 
Nation, the people of Utah, the people of the Kaiparowits Plateau the 
opportunity to at least find out what it is the President proposes?
  If the President can do it to Utah, he can do it to anyone, and, 
Madam Speaker, I would suggest to my colleagues in the House and in the 
Senate and the people across this country that the way to make 
decisions about our Federal resources, the way to make decisions about 
what kind of country we want to live in, the way to make decisions that 
impact the schoolchildren of this Nation is not to do it by stealth, is 
not to do it without involving the elected representatives of both 
parties in the decision.
  Madam Speaker, regardless of what the terms of the President's 
announcement tomorrow may be, regardless of whether he has particular 
boundaries in mind or simply announces his intention to move forward, 
the point is that the President has done this more in the style of the 
old Soviet Union than in the tradition of democracy in America. It is 
the wrong way to make public policy and, Mr. President, I call on you 
to let the people have a chance to decide what to do with the lands we 
own.

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