During his Senate confirmation hearing earlier this year, Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke said he is an “unapologetic admirer” of Teddy Roosevelt. But the former Montana congressman now finds himself tasked with reining in the very same executive powers Roosevelt created to set aside federal lands.
...The act was created to protect small archaeological sites
and other “antiquities” from looting or desecration. But in recent
decades, it has been abused by presidents who have used its executive
authority to set aside vast swaths of public land as national monuments,
often in the final days of their administration. The review process
presents an opportunity for Zinke to help reverse these abuses and
encourage Congress to reform Roosevelt’s antiquated law.
Consider how far the Antiquities Act has strayed from its
original intent: The act states that monument designations should be
limited to “the smallest area compatible with proper care and management
of the objects to be protected.” In recent years, however, it has been
used as a large-scale conservation policy, dictated by presidential
decree. Many recent monuments have comprised more than one million acres
each.
President Barack Obama was especially fond of the act. He
used it to create more national monuments than any other president,
including the controversial 1.35 million-acre Bears Ears National
Monument in Utah, which he designated at the end of his administration
despite opposition by Utah’s legislature, governor, and the state’s
entire congressional delegation, as well as local officials.
The act runs roughshod over the legislative process that
is at the core of American governance, which seeks to promote compromise
and coalition-building. In the case of Bears Ears, a multi-year
legislative effort was underway in Utah to reach a “grand bargain” that
would protect wilderness areas in the region while also opening other
lands for resource development. But the effort was thwarted once Obama
declared the Bears Ears monument.
The Antiquities Act can even corrode the democratic
process and undermine comprise. After all, why would environmental
groups come to the bargaining table in good faith when they can instead
lobby the White House to single-handedly set aside land as monuments?
...Zinke should reject Roosevelt’s legacy of
conservation-by-presidential-decree in favor of an approach that
requires local input and congressional approval. At a time when
Americans on both sides of the political aisle are growing increasingly
wary of the expansion of executive powers, an act that grants presidents
such authority without Congress’ approval or local input should be
viewed for what it truly is: an antiquated law.
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