[Congressional Record Volume 163, Number 72 (Thursday, April 27, 2017)]
[Senate]
[Pages S2579-S2581]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]



                            Antiquities Act

  Mr. President, at the close of the 19th century, many of our 
country's--almost all of our country's--most historic sites were 
completely unprotected. Places like Chaco Canyon and Cliff Palace, home 
to some of the most ancient dwellings in North America, faced looting 
and desecration. So in 1906, Congress actually passed pieces of 
legislation and thought about the next generation of Americans. 
Congress acted to protect these places by passing the Antiquities Act. 
The act empowered Presidents to preserve sites of cultural and historic 
importance and protect our most spectacular landscapes by designating 
them as national monuments using that authority.

  Teddy Roosevelt moved to protect places like Devil's Tower, Muir 
Woods Forest, and even the Grand Canyon. Looking back, it is hard to 
imagine our country without those iconic places. It is hard to imagine 
our country without the legacy of those people who were thinking not 
between sound bites on the television but across generations.
  Since Teddy Roosevelt, administrations from both parties, Democratic 
and Republicans--he was a Republican, as it happens, but both parties 
have used the Antiquities Act to preserve places critical to our 
heritage, including the designation of Colorado National Monument in 
1911. I just visited there.
  In Washington, we may differ over policies--sometimes sharply. There 
is no surprise that is true. But both parties have long risen above 
partisan squabbles of today to protect these special places for 
tomorrow. But with yesterday's Executive order, President Trump has 
upended that tradition by opening the door to attacks on our national 
monuments for generations to come.
  I know there are people in this administration who have said they are 
``lifetime supporters and admirers of Teddy Roosevelt's policies.'' If 
they are, now is the time they need to be heard because today's action 
is an offense to Teddy Roosevelt's vision for America and threatens his 
bipartisan legacy of conservation. The administration's latest 
Executive order initiates a review of all national monument 
designations since 1996 that are larger than 100,000 acres, with an 
interim report on its findings just 45 days later. I wonder if they 
know how long it takes to build a consensus in the West and in other 
places that a place is sacred enough that it should have one of these 
designations, and in 45 days they are going to threaten to disturb the 
work of people all over the West who have supported these designations.
  Speaking yesterday, President Trump justified this action by calling 
earlier monument designations an ``egregious abuse of federal power.'' 
I wonder what he would call a Washington-led effort to undo protections 
for national monuments that enjoy deep support from communities all 
across the country, including in my State of Colorado?
  For all their rhetoric about Washington overreach, this 
administration and its allies in Congress seem to have no problem 
substituting their rash judgment for the thoughtful, community-driven 
designations of national monuments across the United States of America. 
Had they studied this issue at all, they would have learned that 
existing monument designations come from exhaustive consultation and 
hundreds of meetings over thousands of hours.
  Unlike this administration, western communities did our homework. We 
laid the groundwork and paved the way for these designations, which 
leads me to wonder what the administration's review hopes to achieve. I 
would challenge anybody in the Senate to come down here to this floor 
and explain exactly how this 45-day review will uncover information 
that somehow our western communities missed. They can't. They can't 
because that is not the point of this review, which is no more than a 
Trojan horse for advancing the agenda not of the West but for advancing 
the agenda of partisan think

[[Page S2580]]

tanks and politicians in Washington instead of the real-world interests 
of western communities.
  Worse, if the administration ultimately repeals national monument 
designations--which I hope they will not--as a result of this order, it 
would cause real economic pain to Western States, especially in rural 
areas. A recent study found that rural counties in the West with 
protected public lands saw jobs grow at a rate more than three times 
faster compared to areas without protected lands. It just makes sense. 
Just ask outfitters and guides near Browns Canyon, a national monument, 
or local business owners around Chimney Rock, a national monument, what 
the effect has been on their businesses. In fact, those businesses were 
huge champions of both those national monuments. You can go buy a beer 
in Pagosa Springs from a brewery that is brewing it and putting a label 
on it that says ``Chimney Rock National Monument.'' You can buy the 
beer and take it rafting through Browns Canyon with outfitters who 
strongly support the monument.
  National monuments not only preserve our heritage, they strengthen 
rural communities by supporting outdoor economies and attracting 
visitors from around the country and around the world. We should be 
more encouraging of that. Let's do more of that. Instead, this 
Executive order takes aim directly at our rural economies in the West.
  Look at this. As we can see here, nationwide, Americans spend $887 
billion on the outdoor economy each year, supporting $65 billion in 
Federal tax revenue and 7.6 million American jobs which can't be 
exported anywhere. There is not a country in the world that has a 
system of public lands like the United States of America and in 
particular the Western United States of America. There is not a country 
in the world that has what we have.
  If this administration really is serious about creating jobs, 
strengthening our economy, and remaining faithful to the bipartisan 
legacy of Roosevelt, it should keep our national monuments intact and 
uphold the traditions honored by every President since 1906.
  These are treasured places. Even though they have a huge value in 
dollars and cents, their value goes far beyond the economic value. It 
goes to the heart of who we are as a nation. It goes to our cultural 
heritage and to the legacy we want to pass on from our grandparents to 
our grandchildren.
  Teddy Roosevelt called conservation ``a great moral issue, for it 
involves the patriotic duty of ensuring the safety and continuance of 
the nation.'' We must do our duty, our patriotic duty, and I will use 
every tool at my disposal to protect the Antiquities Act and our 
national monuments because in the end our character as a nation is 
revealed in what we choose to preserve now and for generations to come.
  Mr. President, I yield the floor.
  I suggest the absence of a quorum.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The clerk will call the roll.
  The senior assistant legislative clerk proceeded to call the roll.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the order 
for the quorum call be rescinded.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, yesterday President Trump issued an 
Executive order that undermined the protection of dozens of our 
national monuments that were established over the past two decades by 
three different Presidents. In continuing his administration's war on 
our public lands, President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Zinke 
have attacked one of our Nation's most prized conservation laws--the 
Antiquities Act, which gives the President the authority to protect our 
nationally important lands and waters on Federal land by designating 
them as national monuments.
  In the 111 years since the Antiquities Act was signed into law by 
President Teddy Roosevelt, 16 Presidents--8 Republicans and 8 
Democrats--have used the law's authority to designate over 150 national 
monuments. President Trump is trying to undo over 100 years of 
conservation in just a few days.
  Many of our Nation's iconic national parks were first protected by 
using the authority of the Antiquities Act, including the Grand Canyon, 
Acadia, Glacier Bay, Joshua Tree, Zion, and in my home State of 
Washington, Mount Olympus National Monument, which later became Olympic 
National Park.
  No doubt Presidents of both parties have used the Antiquities Act to 
preserve the most beautiful places in our country. However, President 
Trump appears to be very uninformed on the history or the importance of 
the Antiquities Act. In his remarks signing the Executive order 
yesterday, he described the designation of national monuments as an 
``egregious use of federal power'' and vowed he would ``give that power 
back to the States.'' He truly does not understand the Antiquities Act, 
nor does he appreciate the bold leadership of all of those Presidents, 
both Democrats and Republicans, over a period of time--eight 
Republicans and eight Democrats--who have used this authority in an 
appropriate way to preserve for all Americans in the future and those 
in the past who have enjoyed these beautiful places--and to preserve 
our access to public lands.
  I can't tell you how important access to public lands is for 
schoolchildren, our returning veterans, our families, hunters, 
fishermen, and hikers. Putting the Antiquities Act and the millions of 
acres of national monuments that have been protected back into the 
hands of a few who are more aligned with special interests to try to 
open these areas up to oil and gas exploration is the antithesis of 
what the Antiquities Act is all about.
  We plan to continue to emphasize how wrong the President's Executive 
order is.
  First and foremost, in the Executive order, the President directed 
the Secretary of the Interior to review the designation or expansion of 
national monuments under the Antiquities Act where the Secretary deems 
that the designation or expansion was made without adequate public 
comment or coordination with relevant stakeholders. That literally 
gives the Secretary of the Interior broad authority to look at all the 
land that has previously been designated since 1996 and potentially 
open it up to saying they are going to try to reverse that.
  There have been many discussions about the last 20 years of the 
designation of some unbelievable, beautiful places in America that are 
so special--the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah, 
which is 1.7 million acres; the Grand Canyon-Parashant National 
Monument in Arizona; the Giant Sequoia National Monument in California; 
the Canyon of Ancients National Monument in Colorado--I know my 
colleague Senator Bennet from Colorado was speaking about it earlier; 
Hanford Reach National Monument in Washington, which covers 195,000 
acres; the Ironwood Forest National Monument in Arizona; the Vermilion 
Cliffs National Monument in Arizona; the Carrizo Plain National 
Monument in California; the Sonoran Desert National Monument in 
Arizona; the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana; 
the Rio Grande del Norte National Monument in New Mexico, on which my 
colleague Senator Heinrich worked so hard; the Organ Mountains-Desert 
Peaks National Monument, also in New Mexico; the San Gabriel Mountains 
National Monument in California; the Berryessa Snow Mountain National 
Monument in California; the Basin and Range National Monument in 
Nevada; the Mojave Trails National Monument in California; the Sand to 
Snow National Monument in California; Bears Ears, as I have mentioned, 
in Utah; and the Gold Butte National Monument in Nevada. That sounds 
like a lot of designations that we have made over the last 20 years. 
Presidents were very judicious about those designations. It took a lot 
of public comment, many community meetings, and a lot of scientific 
analysis about the preservation of these areas. The end result is that 
for these generations and future generations, national monuments have 
been designated on public lands that are in our national interests.
  This has been so important to us as a nation. As I said, places like 
the Grand Canyon, Olympic National Park in my State--many places have 
created what has become an outdoor recreation economy. That outdoor 
recreation economy is now over $800 billion of annual revenue and 
dwarfs what the oil and gas industry represents as an economy of the 
future. In fact, this industry sector is on par to compete with

[[Page S2581]]

other large sectors of our economy--the financial service sector and 
the healthcare sector. So why are we taking away the very tool that has 
launched so much outdoor activity and a burgeoning job economy, with 7 
million outdoor industry workers? Why are we taking away national 
monument designations that have been the priority of past Presidents 
and trying to return them because someone doesn't understand what the 
Antiquities Act is all about?
  In addition to those large monuments that I just mentioned, also 
under review will be a group of other monuments that are marine 
national monuments. Yes, according to the definition I mentioned 
earlier, Secretary Zinke could review all of these monuments. In fact, 
I noticed that there were several people at the President's signing who 
represented some of these monuments. I don't know if they are urging 
the President to remove their areas, but it raises great concern about 
how important these marine monuments have been.
  There is the Papahanaumokuakea marine national monument in the 
Hawaiian islands that was established in 2006; the World War II Valor 
in the Pacific National Monument, also in Hawaii; the Rose Atoll 
National Monument in American Samoa; the Pacific Remote Islands 
National Monument in Hawaii; the Marianas Trench National Monument in 
the Mariana Islands; and the Northeast Canyons and Seamounts Marine 
National Monument in the Atlantic.
  In addition to all of those maritime national monuments of grand 
scale, these also under consideration are an additional two dozen or 
so--I think it looks like 25--smaller national monuments that could 
also be reviewed by the Secretary of the Interior. Even though they 
were designated with this Presidential authority, in previous 
administrations after great review, they could, by this President and 
this Interior Secretary, be wiped away very quickly.
  We definitely do not believe the President has this legal authority, 
and we will pursue a vigorous fight. Why should we be wasting 
taxpayers' money when taxpayers' money was already spent to make these 
designations, and the taxpayer is getting the huge economic benefit of 
having these outdoor areas?
  What else could be on the President's list according to this 
Executive order? The California Coastal National Monument; Cascade-
Siskiyou National Monument; President Lincoln and Soldier's Home 
National Monument in Washington, DC; Kasha-Katuwe Tent Rocks National 
Monument in New Mexico; Minidoka National Historic Site in Idaho; 
Pompeys Pillar National Monument in Montana; Virgin Islands Coral Reef 
National Monument; Governors Island National Monument in New York; the 
African Burial Ground National Monument in New York; Fort Monroe 
National Monument in Virginia; Fort Ord National Monument in 
California; Chimney Rock National Monument in Colorado; the Cesar 
Chavez National Monument in California; San Juan Islands National 
Monument in the State of Washington; the Harriet Tubman Underground 
Railroad National Monument; the First State National Historic Park in 
Delaware; the Charles Young Buffalo Soldiers Monument; the Honouliuli 
National Monument in Hawaii; the Pullman National Monument in Illinois; 
Browns Canyon National Monument in Colorado; Waco Mammoth National 
Monument in Texas; Castle Mountains National Monument in California; 
the Belmont-Paul Women's Equality National Monument; Stonewall National 
Monument in New York; the Birmingham Civil Rights Monument in Alabama; 
the Freedom Riders National Monument in Alabama; and the Reconstruction 
Era National Monument in South Carolina.
  The Executive order says the Secretary of the Interior can review any 
national monument designation since 1996 ``Where the Secretary 
determines that the designation or expansion was made without adequate 
public outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders.''
  The Executive order says that for any national monument on the list I 
just mentioned, the Secretary of the Interior could decide there was 
not appropriate public outreach. Even though the process used by 
Presidents under the Antiquities Act makes sure you have that, this 
Secretary could decide there wasn't enough and recommend to undo any of 
these monuments and eliminate access to the public for the purposes of 
recreation and enjoyment.
  So this administration has it dead wrong. He is no Teddy Roosevelt. 
In fact, I saw he had a press conference with a statue of Teddy 
Roosevelt behind him. Teddy Roosevelt would be appalled because his 
concept of preserving Federal land was so important. Teddy Roosevelt 
was an outdoorsman who spent many a time in these great places of our 
Nation and understood their great significance. That is why we have the 
Antiquities Act. He knew that these resources strengthened our country. 
They made us strong as a nation. They show the crown jewels of the 
United States of America in all their glory and beauty. He knew it was 
important to protect them for future generations to enjoy, not just for 
the special interests to take advantage of in the near term.
  We have a lot of Federal land and offshore land that is used for 
resource exploration and development. As people know, natural gas is at 
an all-time high in the United States and driving an all-time low 
price. It is not as if you need access to Bears Ears National Monument 
to drive down the price of natural gas or other fossil fuel. What you 
are going to do by pursuing this wrongheaded approach on Bears Ears is 
take away one of the historic and beautiful archaeological histories of 
Native Americans and early Americans in the United States--and an area 
that has excellent outdoor recreation opportunities--and throw it, 
along with the concept of the Antiquities Act, over the side just 
because someone wants to try to reverse what our previous Presidents, 
starting with Teddy Roosevelt, have done to protect these monuments in 
our national interest.
  Representing a State where we have several counties that have lots of 
Federal land, whether forest lands or BLM lands, I know that it can be 
challenging for local communities to maintain the infrastructure, the 
education, the hospitals, the law enforcement. I am a big believer in 
making sure that what are called PILT payments and the Secure Rural 
School Program are well funded and financed to make sure that these 
communities can be there to help us support these public lands. But the 
notion that with one act we would throw in Teddy Roosevelt's face all 
of these national monuments and now say that we are going to try to use 
it in reverse to review the work in the near term, of 3 different 
Presidents who used this authority is simply wrongheaded.
  What we need to do is embrace the outdoor economy. As I said, it is 7 
million jobs with over $800 billion of economic activity. In fact, 
since the last time they did their report, there has been a $200 
billion annual increase in the economic impact in the United States of 
America. What great news. An industry and sector, particularly in 
retail, is growing by leaps and bounds. It is an industry that is 
providing people with more tools and opportunity to enjoy our beautiful 
places. The only thing we can do to screw that up is start taking away 
the beautiful places where people go to recreate. I would say we should 
be examining how well these areas we have protected are being used and 
figure out how we can continue to communicate to the general public 
about these wonderful experiences.
  Do not think for one minute that the American people in their souls 
are not connected to the spiritual nature of these beautiful lands. 
They are. And that is what Teddy Roosevelt knew. He knew this is where 
we go to rejuvenate. Let's not take it away for some oil and gas 
exploration.
  I yield the floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Mr. Sasse). The Senator from Nevada.