President Donald Trump plans to sign an executive order requesting an inspection of all national monuments made in the last 21 years, in a move to appease local lawmakers in Utah.
On Wednesday, Trump will reportedly sign the "Executive Order for a Review of Designations under the Antiquities Act," Axios reported.
"The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the president to declare federal lands of historic or scientific value to be 'National Monuments' and thereby restrict the types of uses to which those lands can be put," an unnamed source told Axios. "The Antiquities Act Executive Order directs the Department of the Interior to review prior monument designations and suggest legislative changes or modifications to the monument proclamations."
An unnamed senior White House official told The Salt Lake Tribune that the order was spurred by former President Barack Obama's establishing Bears Ears National Monument in Utah just before the end of his term. The former commander-in-chief cited the area's Native American heritage as reason for preservation, but the move upset legislators from the state who saw this step as an overreach of executive power.
Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said Sunday, "for years, I have fought every step of the way to ensure that our lands are managed by the Utahns [who] know them best and cherish them deeply," according to the Tribune.
"That's why I'm committed to rolling back the egregious abuse of the Antiquities Act to serve far-left special interests," he added. "As part of this commitment, I have leveraged all of my influence — from private meetings in the Oval Office in the president's first week in office to my latest trip to Bears Ears this week — to ensure that this issue is a priority on the president's agenda."
Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance legislative director Jen Ujifusa argued against the review, telling the Tribune, "Utah's national monuments are our first line of defense against the very real specter of climate change, providing resiliency to not only the species within them, but also to nearby communities. President Trump and the Utah delegation should focus their energies on solving America's challenges, rather than unraveling the solutions that are already working."
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