GREAT FALLS – U.S. Rep. Denny Rehberg’s proposal to forbid presidents from using a 105-year-old law to designate national monuments gets a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C.
Rehberg’s measure will be considered by the House Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.
His proposed Montana Land Sovereignty Act is among bills aimed at amending the Antiquities Act of 1906 — or barring the president from unilaterally declaring national monuments in certain western states.
The Montana Republican, who is running in 2012 for U.S. Senate against freshman Democratic Sen. Jon Tester, has joined ranchers enraged last year by a U.S. Interior Department proposal to designate about a dozen new national monuments across the West, including northeastern Montana prairie land.
Some of this rural fury lingers after the creation of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument in Montana by then-President Bill Clinton in 2001.
“Until Congress acts, Montanans will continue to be at risk of unilateral designations for new national monuments without any public input or feedback,” Rehberg said in a news release. “In 2001, Montana learned this lesson the hard way when folks woke up one morning to find President (Bill) Clinton had created the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument with the stroke of a pen and no meaningful public input.”
Still, supporters of that monument’s designation say it came after a lengthy public process that involved stakeholders from across the region.
They say Rehberg’s bill and the hearing’s timing is more about drumming up support from his loyalists in advance of a tough 2012 challenge to Tester than it is about doing what’s right for Montana.
Tony Bynum of East Glacier, who chaired the Central Montana Resource Advisory Council when the management plan for the Breaks was drafted, contends Congress has more important things to do than try to amend a law that presidents from both parties have used to protect millions of acres of public land.
The designations began with President Theodore Roosevelt’s proclamation of the Devils Tower National Monument in 1906.
“We’re dealing with a lot of issues with the government right now, and trying to take on an issue like the Antiquities Act, when we should be focused on getting the economy on track and creating jobs, is kind of silly,” Bynum said.