Bill would limit Presidents monument efforts

Rep. Devin Nunes of Fresno has introduced a bill to limit the president's power to establish national monuments that he says would endanger the livelihoods of thousands of loggers, miners and farmers. Nunes would let lawmakers weigh in on a president's designation of public land as new national monuments. The Republican congressman thinks this will restrain what he calls the president's "unfettered discretion." Nunes is reacting to information suggesting that the Obama administration plans to nominate new monuments or add to current monuments. He was further motivated by recollections of President Bill Clinton's creation in 2000 of the 353,000-acre Giant Sequoia National Monument in the southern Sierra Nevada. Kent Duysen, general manager and president of Sierra Forest Products, said he had no choice but to shut down one of his mills and let go nearly 250 employees after Clinton's decision. Under Nunes' bill, any new monument nominations must receive congressional approval within two years, or the lands will revert back to their original status, allowing miners and loggers to use the properties again...more