A House panel Monday announced it is moving ahead to reform the century-old Antiquities Act, a law giving presidents the power to create national monuments for preservation.
The bill, introduced Friday by House Natural Resources Committee chair Rob Bishop, R-Utah, would put new rules on large national monument designations made by presidents – proposing reforms that are a key priority for some conservatives, interest groups, and Westerners, The Hill reported.
According to The Hill, the bill would require any new national monument larger than 640 acres to to go through a federal environmental review process; applies increasingly strict rules to potential monuments the larger they get; and codifies the president's ability to reduce the size of a monument.
In his statement, Bishop lauded the bill as one that "modernizes the law to restore its intent, allowing for the protection of actual antiquities without disenfranchisement of local voices and perspectives. It standardizes and limits the president's power to reshape monuments."
The legislation comes in the wake of an Interior Department recommendation President Donald Trump shrink a handful of large monument designations made since the 1990s.
Trump had claimed the Antiquities Act was misused by past presidents to create oversized monuments that hinder energy development, grazing, and other uses.
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