[Congressional Record Volume 147, Number 7 (Monday, January 22, 2001)]
[Senate]
[Pages S424-S425]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
THE ANTIQUITIES ACT
Mr. NICKLES. Mr. President, I rise to be critical of President
Clinton's recent actions dealing with the Antiquities Act in declaring
millions of lands national monuments. He did this without consulting
with the Governors, without consulting with elected officials, without
consulting Congress. I believe that to be almost an act of contempt of
Congress and certainly in defiance of what is considered the
Antiquities Act and the purpose of the Antiquities Act.
The Antiquities Act was written in 1906. It was established at that
time to protect very special historic, beautiful lands from
development. It is a short act, and I will have it printed in the
Record at the conclusion of my speech.
The whole purpose of the act President Clinton has defied. It does
not say he is King or that he can take an unlimited amount of lands
without consulting Congress or elected officials or local officials and
say, we declare this a national monument so you cannot touch it and we
don't care what you think.
I was amused when I noticed the Washington Post and other media said
President Clinton was being active in the final days as President of
the United States. He was more than active when acting in a way I
believe certainly exceeded the statutory language of the Antiquities
Act. Certainly he was being more than active when he defied logic and
did not consult elected officials. I think he abused the Antiquities
Act and his actions prove that it needs to be reformed.
When I read it, I wonder where he gets this authority. I think he
exceeded the authority of the act. The authority of the act says:
The President of the United States is authorized, in his
discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic
landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other
objects of historic and scientific interest that are situated
upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the
United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a
part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all
cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with
the proper care and management of the objects to be
protected.
And it continues.
The media reported that President Clinton has created more national
monuments than any other President going back to Theodore Roosevelt. I
looked back and Theodore Roosevelt didn't do as much as President
Clinton in the last month or certainly since the last election.
Theodore Roosevelt, through his actions, did a total of 1.5 million
acres. President Clinton did 2 million acres after the election. Why
did he do it after the election? Is it because there were hundreds of
thousands of acres he did not consult with people? He didn't ask the
elected officials. He said: This is what we will do; we will declare a
national acres monument. All together he has declared 5.7 million in
national monuments.
I mention the elections because obviously President Clinton used this
act for election purposes. He did it in September of 1996 right before
the election, I might mention, and it dealt with the Grand Staircase-
Escalante National Monument, 1.7 million acres, right before the
election in 1996. He announced it in Arizona, overlooking the Grand
Canyon. That is interesting, but the Grand Escalante is not in Arizona;
it is in Utah. Utah officials were outraged because they were not
consulted. The resources involved mineral deposits and coal, the value
of which were billions of dollars and thousands of jobs. He did not
consult with anybody in Utah. There was public outrage, but nothing
happened. President Clinton did not declare any national monuments in
1997, not in 1998, not in 1999.
Then we come to election year 2000 and President Clinton used a lot
of declarations of national monuments in the year 2000 and particularly
in the last couple of months. In the year 2000, all together he has
done a total of over 4 million acres. Since the election, over 2
million acres. In the last week, on January 17, he made eight more
designations, just a few days ago, in his last week of office, of over
1 million acres. He didn't consult with anybody.
In the House, we have a committee that deals with lands issues, and
in the Senate we have a committee that deals with land and national
resources, the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, a bipartisan
committee, working on land issues all the time. We pass literally
hundreds of bills through the committee. That committee passes more
bills than any other committee in the Senate. We deal with the bills,
particularly land issues, on a bipartisan basis. Most of the time on
land issues we listen to the home State Senators. If they recommend a
parcel of land be designated as a wilderness or national monument, we
listen to the Senators and we know they are held accountable in their
States. So we give them great respect and deference.
President Clinton didn't consult with Members of the Senate, and
didn't consult with the Energy and Natural Resources Committee; didn't
consult with the House Resources committee. He just designated a
national monument. Maybe he did it right and maybe he didn't do it
right. My guess is he is bound to have made mistakes trying to appease
groups, perhaps environmental activists--I don't know.
I may well agree with many of these. I happen to be a
preservationist. I happen to be a conservationist. I love the outdoors.
I have been in the Colorado River. I love to hike. I love to camp. I
love to be outdoors as much as anybody. I love to hike on trails. I
love our natural resources.
What I don't like is a dictator. What I don't like is an emperor.
What I don't like is to have a Presidential fiat, saying we will
designate, and we don't care what the public thinks. We don't care what
the elected officials think. We don't care what the Governors think.
That is what I really object to.
I make the statements in great dissatisfaction with former President
Clinton because he showed contempt of Congress, contempt of the
Constitution, contempt of the people who live in those districts.
I think Congress should look at some of these recent declarations and
have hearings. Did he draft these declarations correctly? Are the
boundaries right? Are they too big? Are they too restrictive? Do they
make sense? What
[[Page S425]]
is the economic consequences on the local city and towns and
communities? What does this mean for their taxes? What does this mean
for future royalties? What does this mean to Indian tribes? What does
it mean for him to take these millions of acres and designate them a
national monument? I may agree with each one. I disagree with the
process.
Again, I think it is very much in violation of the Antiquities Act,
very much in violation of the intentions of the Antiquities Act, very
much an abuse of his office as President of the United States. There is
no comparison to previous Presidents and what they have done.
I will have printed in the Record a list of all Presidents since the
inception of the Antiquities Act, starting with Theodore Roosevelt, all
the way through listing every President and the number of acres they
had designated during their terms of office as national monuments. It
shows no President has done as much as President Clinton, with the
exception of President Carter when there was an enormous amount of land
in the State of Alaska that was declared a national monument.
Other than that one act, President Clinton had exceeded any other
President by multiples of at least two, three, four, or many times
more. President George Herbert Walker Bush had zero acres. President
Ronald Reagan had zero acres. President Jimmy Carter, I mentioned
Alaska lands issued, so that was different. Gerald Ford had 86 acres.
Richard Nixon had zero acres. Lyndon Johnson had 344,000 acres.
President Clinton did more than 10 times L.B.J. John Kennedy did 26,000
acres; President Clinton did almost 5.7 million acres. John Kennedy did
26,000 acres. This was a Land grab, a power grab, but more than that, I
believe it was an unconstitutional expansion of the Antiquities Act.
I think he exceeded his constitutional power and I regret it. I think
it was a mistake. I think it shows contempt of Congress. Why did he
wait until after the election? Possibly because there would be a real
significant uproar in these States for failing to consult them.
Under the way President Clinton has misused and, I believe, abused
the act, he has acted more like a emperor than President of the United
States.
I ask unanimous consent a list showing President Clinton's use of the
1906 Antiquities Act and other Presidents and their use of the
Antiquities Act in addition to copies of the Antiquities Act and the
limitations and the situation dealing with Alaska and Wyoming be
printed in the Record.
There being no objection, the material was ordered to be printed in
the Record, as follows:
PRESIDENT CLINTON'S USE OF 1906 ANTIQUITIES ACT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Estimated Date
William Jefferson Clinton (1993-Present) acreage established
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument.... 1,700,000 09-18-96
Aquafria National Monument..................... 71,100 01-11-00
California Coastal National Monument........... 7,000 01-11-00
Grand Canyon-Parashant National Monument....... 1,014,000 01-11-00
Pinnacles National Monument.................... 7,900 01-11-00
Giant Sequoia National Monument................ 327,769 04-15-00
Canyon of the Ancients......................... 164,000 06-09-00
Cascade-Siskiyou National Monument............. 52,000 06-09-00
Hanford Reach National Monument................ 195,000 06-09-00
Ironwood Forest National Monument.............. 129,000 06-09-00
President Lincoln National Monument............ 2 07-07-00
Vermilion Cliffs National Monument............. 293,000 11-09-00
Craters of the Moon National Monument.......... 661,000 11-09-00
Upper Missouri River Breaks.................... 337,000 01-17-01
Pompeys Pillar................................. 51 01-17-01
Carrizo Plain.................................. 204,000 01-17-01
Sonoran Desert................................. 486,000 01-17-01
Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks........................ 4,100 01-17-01
Minidoka Internment National Monument.......... 73 01-17-01
U.S. Virgin Island Coral Reef National Monument 12,708 01-17-01
Buck Island Reef National Monument............. 18,135 01-17-01
------------
Total...................................... 5,683,838
------------------------------------------------------------------------
PRESIDENTS AND THE ANTIQUITIES ACT
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total
President acreage
------------------------------------------------------------------------
Theodore Roosevelt......................................... 1,529,418
William H. Taft............................................ 32,631
Woodrow Wilson............................................. 1,202,913
W.G. Harding............................................... 9,555
Cavin Coolidge............................................. 2,634,226
Herbert Hoover............................................. 2,125,720
Franklin Delano Roosevelt.................................. 2,626,559
Harry S. Truman............................................ 27,954
Dwight D. Eisenhower....................................... -22,530
John F. Kennedy............................................ 26,128
Lyndon B. Johnson.......................................... 344,674
Richard M. Nixon........................................... 0
Gerald R. Ford............................................. 86
Jimmy Carter............................................... 55,975,000
Ronald W. Reagan........................................... 0
George Herbert Walker Bush................................. 0
William Jefferson Clinton.................................. 5,683,838
------------------------------------------------------------------------
ANTIQUITIES ACT
16 USC Sec. 431
TITLE 16--CONSERVATION
Chapter 1--National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores
Subchapter LXI--National and International Monuments and Memorials
Sec. 431. National monuments; reservation of lands; relinquishment of
private claims
The President of the United States is authorized in his
discretion, to declare by public proclamation historic
landmarks, historic and prehistoric structures, and other
objects of historic or scientific interest that are situated
upon the lands owned or controlled by the Government of the
United States to be national monuments, and may reserve as a
part thereof parcels of land, the limits of which in all
cases shall be confined to the smallest area compatible with
the proper care and management of the objects to be
protected. When such objects are situated upon a tract
covered by a bona fide unperfected claim or held in private
ownership, the tract, or so much thereof as may be necessary
for the proper care and management of the object, may be
relinquished to the Government, and the Secretary of the
Interior is authorized to accept the relinquishment of such
tracts in behalf of the Government of the United States.--
(June 8, 1906, ch. 3060, Sec. 2, 34 Stat. 225.)
____
LIMITATION ON FURTHER EXTENSION OR ESTABLISHMENT OF NATIONAL MONUMENTS
IN WYOMING
16 USC Sec. 431a
TITLE 16--CONSERVATION
Chapter 1--National Parks, Military Parks, Monuments, and Seashores
Subchapter LXI--National and International Monuments and Memorials
Sec. 431a. Limitation on further extension or establishment of national
monuments in Wyoming
No further extension or establishment of national monuments
in Wyoming may be undertaken except by express authorization
of Congress.--(Sept. 14, 1950, ch. 950, Sec. 1, 64 Stat.
849.)
____
ALASKA NATIONAL INTEREST LANDS CONSERVATION
16 USC Sec. 3213
TITLE 16--CONSERVATION
Chapter 51--Alaska National Interest Lands Conservation
Subchapter VI--Administrative Provisions
Sec. 3213. Future executive branch actions
(a) No further executive branch action which withdraws more
than five thousand acres, in the aggregate, of public lands
within the State of Alaska shall be effective except by
compliance with this subsection. To the extent authorized by
existing law, the President or the Secretary may withdraw
public lands in the State of Alaska exceeding five Thousand
acres in the aggregate, which withdrawal shall not become
effective until notice is provided in the Federal Register
and to both Houses of Congress. Such withdrawal shall
terminate unless Congress passes a joint resolution of
approval within one year after the notice of such withdrawal
has been submitted to Congress.
(b) No further studies of Federal lands in the State of
Alaska for the single purpose of considering the
establishment of a conservation system unit, national
recreation area, national conservation area, or for related
or similar purposes shall be conducted unless authorized by
this Act or further Act of Congress.--(Pub. L. 96-487, title
XIII, Sec. 1326,
Dec. 2, 1980, 94 Stat. 2488.)
Ms. STABENOW. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent to speak for 15
minutes as in morning business.
The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
____________________