[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.

                          ____________________