[House Report 115-364]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


115th Congress }                                          { REPORT
                        HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
 1st Session   }                                          { 115-364

======================================================================
 
   RESOLUTION OF INQUIRY REQUESTING THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTING THE 
SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO TRANSMIT, RESPECTIVELY, CERTAIN DOCUMENTS 
 AND OTHER INFORMATION TO THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES RELATING TO THE 
EXECUTIVE ORDER ON THE REVIEW OF DESIGNATIONS UNDER THE ANTIQUITIES ACT

                                _______
                                

  October 23, 2017.--Referred to the House Calendar and ordered to be 
                                printed

                                _______
                                

Mr. Bishop of Utah, from the Committee on Natural Resources, submitted 
                             the following

                             ADVERSE REPORT

                             together with

                            DISSENTING VIEWS

                       [To accompany H. Res. 555]

    The Committee on Natural Resources, to whom was referred 
the resolution (H. Res. 555) of inquiry requesting the 
President and directing the Secretary of the Interior to 
transmit, respectively, certain documents and other information 
to the House of Representatives relating to the executive order 
on the review of designations under the Antiquities Act, having 
considered the same, report unfavorably thereon with an 
amendment and recommend that the resolution as amended not be 
agreed to.
    The amendment is as follows:
  Strike all after the resolving clause and insert the 
following:

  That the President is requested, and the Secretary of the 
Interior is directed, to transmit, to the extent that such 
documents are in the possession of the President or the 
Secretary, (in a manner appropriate to classified information, 
if the President determines appropriate) to the House of 
Representatives, not later than 14 days after the date of the 
adoption of this resolution, copies of every document, map, 
survey, report, record, memorandum, call log, correspondence 
(electronic and otherwise), and other communication or any 
portion of any such communication, that refers or relates to 
the executive order on the review of designations under the 
Antiquities Act (Executive Order 13792, April, 26, 2017), 
including the following:
          (1) All documents and communications relating to the 
        Secretary of the Interior's review of all Presidential 
        designations or expansions of designations under the 
        Antiquities Act made since January 1, 1996, as 
        described in the executive order.
          (2) All documents and communications relating to the 
        Secretary of the Interior's review of all Presidential 
        designations where the Secretary determined that the 
        designation or expansion was made without adequate 
        public outreach and coordination with relevant 
        stakeholders, as described in the executive order.
          (3) All documents and communications relating to the 
        interim and final reports to the President, including 
        any recommendations for Presidential actions, 
        legislative proposals, or other actions recommended by 
        the Secretary of the Interior to carry out the policy 
        set forth in section 1 of the executive order.
          (4) Any meeting or communication that occurred 
        between Secretary Ryan Zinke and President Trump, or 
        their representatives, relating to the recommendations 
        or reports required by the executive order.
          (5) Any meeting or communication that occurred 
        between Secretary Ryan Zinke, or his representatives, 
        and energy and mining companies, or their 
        representatives, relating to the recommendations or 
        reports required by the executive order.
          (6) Any meeting or communication that occurred 
        between Secretary Ryan Zinke, or his representatives, 
        and LGBTQ and minority communities, or their 
        representatives, relating to the recommendations or 
        reports required by the executive order.
          (7) Any documents and communications relating to 
        travel costs of Secretary Zinke and his staff for the 
        purposes of the review under the executive order.
          (8) Any meeting or communication that occurred 
        between Secretary Ryan Zinke, or his representatives, 
        and Native American tribes, or their representatives, 
        relating to the recommendations or reports required by 
        the executive order.
          (9) Any document including applicable ethics waivers 
        for Department of the Interior employees working on the 
        review, as described in the executive order, whether 
        granted or denied.
          (10) Any documents that, on their face, contain 
        economic analyses of national monument designations, as 
        described in the executive order.

                          PURPOSE OF THE BILL

    The purpose of H. Res. 555 is to request the President and 
direct the Secretary of the Interior to transmit, respectively, 
certain documents and other information to the House of 
Representatives relating to the executive order on the review 
of designations under the Antiquities Act.

                  BACKGROUND AND NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    H. Res. 555 is a resolution of inquiry that requests the 
President and directs the Secretary of the Interior to transmit 
to the House of Representatives, not later than 14 days after 
the adoption of the resolution by the full House, copies of 
every document, map, survey, report, record, memorandum, call 
log, correspondence (electronic and otherwise), and other 
communication or any portion of any such communication, that 
refers or relates to the executive order on the review of 
designations under the Antiquities Act (Executive Order 13792, 
April 26, 2017), including: (1) documents and communications 
relating to the Secretary of the Interior's review of all 
Presidential designations or expansions of designations under 
the Antiquities Act made since January 1, 1996, as described in 
the executive order; (2) all documents and communications 
relating to the Secretary of the Interior's review of all 
Presidential designations where the Secretary determined that 
the designation or expansion was made without adequate public 
outreach and coordination with relevant stakeholders, as 
described in the executive order; (3) all documents and 
communications relating to the interim and final reports to the 
President, including any recommendations for Presidential 
actions, legislative proposals, or other actions recommended by 
the Secretary of the Interior to carry out the policy set forth 
in section 1 of the executive order; and (4) any meeting or 
communication that occurred between Secretary Ryan Zinke and 
President Trump, or their representatives, relating to the 
recommendations or reports required by the executive order.
    Under clause 7 of rule XIII of the Rules of the House of 
Representatives, the Committee must act on such a resolution 
within 14 legislative days of its introduction or a privileged 
motion to discharge the Committee will be in order in the House 
of Representatives.
    Under the rules and precedents of the House, a resolution 
of inquiry is one method used by the House to obtain 
information from the executive branch. According to volume 7, 
chapter 24, section 8 of Deschler's Procedure, it is a ``simple 
resolution making a direct request or demand of the President 
or the head of an executive department to furnish the House of 
Representatives with specific factual information in the 
possession of the executive branch.'' The rules of the House of 
Representatives contain no specific provision for enforcing 
resolutions of inquiry.\1\
---------------------------------------------------------------------------
    \1\Charles Johnson, John V. Sullivan, Thomas J. Wickham, Jr., House 
Practice: A Guide to the Rules, Precedents, and Procedures of the House 
(115th Congress, 1st Session), p. 850.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------

                            COMMITTEE ACTION

    H. Res. 555 was introduced by Congressman Raul M. Grijalva 
(D-AZ) on October 4, 2017, and referred to the Committee on 
Natural Resources. No hearing was held on the measure. On 
October 11, 2017, the Natural Resources Committee met to 
consider the resolution. Congressman Rob Bishop offered an 
amendment in the nature of a substitute designated 035; it was 
adopted by a unanimous roll call vote of 40 ayes and 0 nays, as 
follows:


    The resolution was then ordered unfavorably reported to the 
House of Representatives by a roll call vote of 23 to 17, as 
follows:
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]

            COMMITTEE OVERSIGHT FINDINGS AND RECOMMENDATIONS

    Regarding clause 2(b)(1) of rule X and clause 3(c)(1) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives, the 
Committee on Natural Resources' oversight findings and 
recommendations are reflected in the body of this report.

      COMPLIANCE WITH HOUSE RULE XIII AND CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET ACT

    1. Cost of Legislation and the Congressional Budget Act. 
With respect to the requirements of clause 3(c)(2) and (3) of 
rule XIII of the Rules of the House of Representatives and 
sections 308(a) and 402 of the Congressional Budget Act of 
1974, the Committee has not received a cost estimate for the 
bill from the Director of the Congressional Budget Office. 
However, the Committee estimates that this resolution of 
inquiry would not result in any significant costs. In addition, 
the Committee does not believe it the resolution would result 
in new or increased budget authority, entitlement authority or 
tax expenditures or revenues. Finally, the Committee has not 
received an estimate of federal mandates prepared by the 
Director of the Congressional Budget Office pursuant to section 
423 of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act, but the Committee 
believes that no federal mandates are included in this 
resolution.
    2. General Performance Goals and Objectives. As required by 
clause 3(c)(4) of rule XIII, the general performance goal or 
objective of this bill is to request the President and direct 
the Secretary of the Interior to transmit, respectively, 
certain documents and other information to the House of 
Representatives relating to the executive order on the review 
of designations under the Antiquities Act.

                           EARMARK STATEMENT

    This resolution does not contain any Congressional 
earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as 
defined under clause 9(e), 9(f), and 9(g) of rule XXI of the 
Rules of the House of Representatives.

                    COMPLIANCE WITH PUBLIC LAW 104-4

    This resolution contains no unfunded mandates.

                       COMPLIANCE WITH H. RES. 5

    Directed Rule Making. This resolution does not contain any 
directed rule makings.
    Duplication of Existing Programs. This resolution does not 
establish or reauthorize a program of the federal government 
known to be duplicative of another program. Such program was 
not included in any report from the Government Accountability 
Office to Congress pursuant to section 21 of Public Law 111-139 
or identified in the most recent Catalog of Federal Domestic 
Assistance published pursuant to the Federal Program 
Information Act (Public Law 95-220, as amended by Public Law 
98-169) as relating to other programs.

                PREEMPTION OF STATE, LOCAL OR TRIBAL LAW

    This resolution is not intended to preempt any State, local 
or tribal law.

                            DISSENTING VIEWS

    For months, Committee Democrats have sought information 
regarding reports associated with executive order 13792--
Presidents Trump's sweeping review of 27 national monuments 
created since 1996 under the Antiquities Act. Letters and 
requests for information have gone unanswered.
    Interior Secretary Zinke toured several of the listed 
monuments, but consistently failed to provide a detailed agenda 
of his tours, including the stakeholders with whom he met. This 
lack of transparency is hypocritical and troubling; there is no 
reason for the White House or the Department to keep the report 
or its methodology secret.
    Secretary Zinke has failed to deliver on his promise of an 
``open review process'' by not providing more information about 
his agenda, analysis, and full scope of findings from his 
national monument tours and meetings. During the 60-day comment 
period, more than 2.8 million responses were submitted and 
revealed that a large majority of Americans are supportive of 
maintaining or expanding current national monument boundaries. 
The Secretary has indicated he plans to ignore those comments 
so the public deserves to know what information he does plan to 
rely on.
    Due to the lack of information and transparency, Ranking 
Member Grijalva, along with 25 original cosponsors, introduced 
the resolution of inquiry (ROI)--H. Res. 555 requesting the 
release of all administration supporting documents, reports, 
maps, surveys, communications, and correspondence relating to 
the president's executive order.
    At markup, Committee Democrats filed amendments to expand 
the scope of the ROI, seeking even more detailed information 
about the Secretary's travel and meeting schedule. As the 
review seeks to shrink several national monuments that protect 
Native American sacred sites, Indian, Insular and Alaska Native 
Affairs Subcommittee Ranking Member Torres offered an amendment 
to request information about the administration's engagement 
with tribal governments during the course of the review.
    Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee Ranking Member 
McEachin offered an amendment to request information about 
meetings with diverse constituencies, including representatives 
of the LGBTQ and other minority communities. Energy and Mineral 
Resources Ranking Member Lowenthal offered an amendment to 
request information about any meetings with energy and mining 
companies.
    In light of recent reports about potential illegal travel 
by the Secretary, Representative Napolitano offered an 
amendment seeking further information about travel costs 
associated with the review. Reports of the Trump 
administration's disregard for ethics guidelines for former 
lobbyists working in the federal government led Representative 
Gallego to offer an amendment seeking information about ethics 
waivers for Department of the Interior employees working on the 
review. Lastly, given the fact that national monuments help 
drive economic growth in local communities by increasing local 
tourism and outdoor recreation, Representative Gomez introduced 
an amendment seeking any economic analysis used to develop the 
report.
    All of the amendments were incorporated into the amendment 
in the nature of a substitute offered by Chairman Bishop, which 
was supported by every Member of the Committee.
    However, instead of taking this request for transparency 
seriously, Committee Republicans ultimately chose to order the 
ROI reported unfavorably.
    Whether this resolution comes before the full House for 
consideration is now completely in the hands of Committee 
Republicans who control the measure. Committee Republicans 
should demand transparency from the Trump administration as 
vociferously and relentlessly as they did from the Obama 
administration.

                                   Raul M. Grijalva
                                           Ranking Member, Committee on 
                                               Natural Resources.
                                   Darren Soto.
                                   Jared Huffman.
                                   A. Donald McEachin.
                                   Madeleine Z. Bordallo.
                                   Alan S. Lowenthal.
                                   Grace F. Napolitano.
                                   Niki Tsongas.
                                   Ruben Gallego.
                                   Colleen Hanabusa.
                                   Jimmy Gomez.
                                   Nanette Diaz Barragan.

                                  [all]