From: Congressman Trent Franks office
Subject: New National Monument designations around the corner?
A document recently obtained from the Department of Interior (DOI) indicates the Obama Administration is considering a flurry of new national monument designations (the document is a 5meg PDF file and is available upon request) throughout the West. The document mentions designations and land acquisitions in 11 different western states: Utah, Montana, New Mexico, California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Washington, Colorado, Alaska, and Wyoming. Further evidence the Administration is looking to exercise its executive power to advance its agenda was made even more clear in this article from the Friday edition of the New York Times.
According to our quick evaluation of the DOI document, as many as 13 million acres of land (possibly more) are at risk for potential designation. Nearly every one of these proposed designations involve areas with energy potential. This effort to lock up millions of acres of land throughout the West is just one more example of a renewed War on the West undertaken by an Administration determined to limit public access, reduce domestic energy production, ignore basic property rights, and impede real job creation. We encourage Western Caucus Members to alert the various stakeholders, both public and private, within your districts of this nascent effort and to discuss with them ways to fight back. To help you in that end, I’ve attached a brief talking point document and a CRS report that provides good historical information on National Monument designations.
Let there be no mistake, massive new monument designations could have significant impact on our western constituents. Members of the Western Caucus need to aggressively push back on this new attack on the West. Please feel free to contact me if you have any questions, ideas or suggestions.
Files:
National Monument Issues [PDF]
Antiquities Act Talking Points [DOC]
