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WASHINGTON — Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy suggested Congress should oversee the declaration of national monuments such as Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, and criticized Democratic presidents for designating the "controversial" monuments in the Beehive State.
The Republican congresswoman spoke at a forum with the Congressional Western Caucus in Washington on Tuesday, alongside several representatives and local elected officials, including Garfield County Commissioner Leland Pollock. Maloy, who grew up in Cedar City, said she's no stranger to national monuments and supports some — such as the Cedar Breaks National Monument — but accused presidents of using the power given them in the Antiquities Act to create what she said are overly broad monuments.
"We like the open space and the rural lifestyle, but it comes with burdens," she said, which include the federal government acting as "landlords."
She said then-President Bill Clinton knew his declaration of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in 1996 would prove "controversial" and criticized the nearly 1.9 million-acre monument.
"It's way too big," she said. "It does encompass some really beautiful places that probably should be preserved. It also encompasses some places that don't really have any significance."
While the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments were reduced by former President Donald Trump, the Biden administration reverted them to their original size during the first year of his presidency.
Pollock, who said he was born on land that is now encompassed within the Grand Staircase-Estalante National Monument, said declaring the monument is "not excusable." Pollock was one of the county commissioners who urged Trump to reduce the size of the monument in 2017.
"The truth is, the Antiquities Act has been weaponized and the other side better wake up some time and realize whatever they can do to us, we can do it. We did it with Trump," he said. "I don't care how bad they hate Trump, he's basically my hero."
Maloy called the Antiquities Act, which was passed in 1906, an "anachronism" that "doesn't make sense anymore."
"In 1906 ... it made sense for the executive branch to move quickly to preserve something like Devil's Tower or Cedar Breaks and make sure it didn't get homesteaded inappropriately," she said.
In light of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling weakening federal regulators, she said it's a "really good time" to be talking about legislation to give Congress more power over monuments, particularly if they exceed a certain size.
National monuments have long been a sore spot between Utah politicians and Washington. The state sued the federal government over Biden's designation of the current monuments, and appealed the decision after the case was dismissed last August.
Top state officials in February also announced they were pulling out of negotiations with the feds over a possible land exchange of Utah school trust lands located within Bears Ears, saying the federal government has not acted in good faith.
