Utah groups throw support behind monuments bill

SALT LAKE CITY — The Utah Cattlemen's Association and Utah Wool Growers Association are among more than two dozen groups across the country supporting legislation unveiled Wednesday that would limit the president's power related to new national monument designations.

Sponsored by Rep. Devin Nunes, R-Calif., the bill would still allow a U.S. president to set aside land for national monument designation, but Congress would have to sign off on it within two years. If that approval did not happen, the land would revert to its original status.

The bill stems from a leaked memo in February from the U.S. Department of Interior that named several potential sites as possible national monuments, including Utah's San Rafael Swell and Cedar Mesa in the Four Corners region.

Rumors of such designations set off a furor of political protest in Utah, especially given President Bill Clinton's surprise 1996 designation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument that blocked a huge coal mining operation there.

Sixteen GOP House members from the West, including Republican Reps. Rob Bishop and Jason Chaffetz, wrote in February to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, asking him to turn over any other documents the Interior Department might have regarding the formation of new national monuments. The Obama administration turned over some but not all of the documents the Republicans requested.

In a visit to Utah earlier this year, Salazar assured lawmakers and other members of Gov. Gary Herbert's Balanced Resources Council that no such designations would come absent public input.

Other supporters of Nunes' bill include the National Association of Counties, the Public Lands Council and multiple livestock associations largely located in the West.

e-mail: amyjoi@desnews.com