[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 163 (2017), Part 5]
[House]
[Page 7429]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                            ANTIQUITIES ACT

  (Mr. LaMALFA asked and was given permission to address the House for 
1 minute and to revise and extend his remarks.)
  Mr. LaMALFA. Mr. Speaker, this week in the Natural Resources 
Committee, we conducted an important hearing and review on the 
Antiquities Act. This is the process for which these days the President 
unilaterally can declare national monuments, thereby placing acres that 
are deemed to be preserved into a monument, which then cannot be 
touched by human hands as it is interpreted and enforced these days.
  Under President Obama, twice as many acres were placed into that type 
of monument status as all other Presidents combined over the history of 
the country.
  Now, what this means is that you can't have access for forestry, fire 
protection, and other things you need to do for human activity. Even 
access for hunting and fishing is oftentimes limited. What we need is 
to have a process where Congress can have approval of the Antiquities 
Act if one of these proposals comes into place. We need to have that so 
that the people will have access to their lands so they can be managed 
if need be.
  The size of the monument, yes, we have areas we need to declare and 
protect. But the size of the monument is very important as well because 
it doesn't need to be always hundreds of thousands, even millions, of 
acres. Indeed, under the act, the idea is that it would be under the 
smallest possible size to preserve the object.

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