Senator Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, the senior Republican in the United States Senate, spoke on the Senate floor about his visit to the recently designated Bears Ears National Monument and the President’s forthcoming executive order, which will address past presidential abuses under the Antiquities Act.
As long as I’m a United States Senator, I will not stop fighting to make sure that Utahns have a voice in the management of public lands.
I understand that the President even stands ready to issue an Executive Order reining in the abuse of authority under the Antiquities Act. This action would direct the Department of the Interior “to review prior monument designations and suggest legislative changes or modifications to [these] proclamations.”
In President Trump, we have a leader who is committed to defending the Western way of life. I am deeply grateful for his willingness to work with us to undo the harm caused by the overreach of his predecessors.
The full speech, as prepared for delivery, is below:
Mr. President, last week, I had the opportunity to return home to visit the recently declared Bears Ears National Monument. This federal designation encompasses roughly 1.35 million acres in Utah and is located in one of our country’s most remote communities: San Juan County.
For decades, this quiet county remained largely untouched by the tensions of modern life and the taint of Washington politics. But no more. San Juan County is now the epicenter of a brutal battle over public lands—the outcome of which will have long-lasting consequences, not only for Utah but for the entire nation.
In geographical terms, San Juan County is massive. It’s the largest county in the State of Utah and the second-largest county in the United States. To put the size of San Juan County in perspective, consider that the county itself is larger than several states, including Connecticut, Delaware, and Rhode Island.
San Juan County alone accounts for nearly ten percent of all land in Utah. Yet Utahns have very little say in what actually goes on there. That’s because the federal government administers the vast majority of San Juan County. Incredibly, just eight percent of the county’s land is under private ownership while an area of more thantwo million acres is controlled by the Bureau of Land Management.
This means that, for years, my constituents, who depend on the land’s resources, have been at the mercy of out-of-touch bureaucrats who have little knowledge or personal connection to the land. President Obama only made matters worse when he spurned the men and women of San Juan County by declaring the Bears Ears National Monument last December. In doing so, he defied the will of the state legislature, the Governor, and the entire Utah Congressional delegation. President Obama’s midnight monument designation imposed even greater land-use restrictions on a region that is already predominantly controlled by the federal government.
This last-minute monument designation was a case study in presidential hubris. In making this unilateral decision, our former President either failed to heed the concerns of San Juan County residents or ignored them completely. As evidence of his disdain, President Obama issued this declaration with no open debate, no public hearing, and no vote in Congress. Utahns are now suffering the consequences of his recklessness.
When I visited the Bears Ears region last week, I met with small business owners and local officials who lamented the fact that the Obama administration never even gave them the courtesy of a simple phone call. President Obama knew that his last-minute decision would impact the livelihoods of thousands in my state. But he was clearly more concerned with appeasing far-left interest groups than helping the men and women who depend on this land for their very survival.
Now Mr. President, I wish to be clear: in opposing the Bears Ears monument designation, I am in no way opposing the protection of lands that need to be protected. Indeed, there are many cultural sites in San Juan County that deserve special care, and I am committed to working with the President and with Congress to preserve these sacred sites.
But I believe it is both unlawful and undemocratic for any President to seize millions upon millions of acres of land through the Antiquities Act—a law that was meant to give the President only narrow authority to designate special landmarks, such as a unique natural arch or the site of old cliff dwellings.
We desperately need a more sensible approach to protecting public lands—an approach that adheres more closely to the original intent of the Antiquities Act. Under this bill, Presidents were to exercise their authority to designate only the smallest area necessary to protect objects of antiquity. Instead, past Presidents have abused their power under the Antiquities Act to seize entire swaths of land. In the case of Bears Ears, President Obama cited his authority under the Antiquities Act to lock away an entire quarter of San Juan County—an action that undermines local autonomy and clearly violates the spirit of the law.
In my view, land-use decisions should not be decreed by executive fiat; they should be made only through a collaborative process that involves those who actually live on the land and know how to manage it. For example, had President Obama workedwith rather than around Congress to protect public lands, Utah’s schoolchildren would be better off today.
That’s because there are more than 100,000 acres of school trust land that lie within the 1.3 million-acre Bears Ears Monument. The land is a significant source of revenue for schools across our state, providing children with the instruction and resources they need to succeed well into adulthood. But with President Obama’s unilateral monument designation, this land was effectively rendered useless, eroding our state’s ability to raise much-needed funding for Utah’s schools. Had a more responsible legislative approach been taken to protect the Bears Ears, we could have preserved our school trust lands and protected the revenue they generate to benefit Utah’s schoolchildren.
Mr. President, I wish to emphasize again that I am fully committed to protecting the vast stretches of red rock, desert, and rolling prairie that dot our Western landscape. But the Antiquities Act is simply not the means to that end. Monumental land-use decisions affecting thousands of westerners should be made by the men and women on the ground and their duly elected representatives—not just the President and his advisers.
Congress—not the President alone—should have a say in decisions that restrict access to millions of acres of federally owned land. In making such decisions, the voice of the people is paramount.
That’s why last week I visited the people of San Juan County. There, I spoke with Native Americans who rely upon this land and its resources for their very livelihood. I met with members of the San Juan County School District who depend on the school trust lands to keep their classrooms lit and their schools up and running. And I met with members of the San Juan County Commission who are dealing firsthand with the negative consequences of the Bears Ears designation.
I traveled to San Juan County to listen to the people who feel abandoned by their very own government. My trip only reaffirmed my concern with the Bears Ears National Monument, which I have long held is not in the best interest of San Juan County. The men and women of San Juan County are a strong and hardy people. They share a deep connection and history with the land. But San Juan County isn’t without its struggles. For decades, it’s been listed among the most persistently poor counties in the nation.
With the vast majority of the land owned and operated by the federal government, the fate of San Juan County rests almost entirely with Beltway bureaucrats making politically motivated decisions more than two thousand miles away. The families of southern Utah should not be at the mercy of a federal bureaucracy so completely out of touch with the Western way of life.
Mr. President, enough is enough. Under the Constitution, Congress has the sole authority to manage public lands. The only reason the executive branch has any say in the management of federal lands is because Congress granted the President limited authority to participate in this process. We entrusted the executive branch to exercise reasonable authority through bills such as the Federal Lands Policy Management Act. At the heart of these policies was the principle of multiple-use and sustainable yield—a mandate that Congress gave the executive branch when granting it this authority.
The mandate of multiple-use was meant to preserve the ability of areas like San Juan County to live and grow, even when inundated with federally owned public lands. But President Obama betrayed this mandate through his Bears Ears designation when he declared much more than the smallest acreage possible as required by the Antiquities Act.
When I spoke with the leadership of the San Juan County School District, they told me how prosperous the County had been when they were able to strike a balance with multiple land use. But the county’s schools have been strapped for cash ever since the Bears Ears Monument designation rendered these lands useless.
After speaking with school officials, we then met with local County commissioners and Navajo from San Juan County and drove together into the heart of Bears Ears. At Bears Ears Meadow, we discussed how the monument could be altered so that the lands that deserve protection can remain protected but in a way that’s consistent with the language of the Antiquities Act.
Mr. President, I believe there will be changes made to Bears Ears. These beautiful lands deserve protection, but so, too, do the people of San Juan County. They should not be trampled on by their own government. As long as I’m a United States Senator, I will not stop fighting to make sure that Utahns have a voice in the management of public lands.
For years, I’ve fought to check the abuse of executive power under the Antiquities Act. That’s why I’ve been working closely with the Trump administration from day one to right the wrongs of previous administrations.
In the opening weeks of his presidency, I met personally with President Trump in the Oval Office to discuss the national monument issue at length. He listened intently as I relayed the fears and frustrations of thousands in our state who have been personally hurt by the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase monument designations. I explained the urgency of addressing the harm caused by these devastating measures, and I asked for his help in doing so.
I was encouraged that—unlike his predecessor—President Trump actually took the time to listen and understand the heavy toll of such overreaching actions. Our President even assured me that he stands ready to work with us to undo the damage wrought by previous presidents under the Antiquities Act.
As details emerge, I understand that the President even stands ready to issue an Executive Order reining in the abuse of authority under the Antiquities Act. This action would direct the Department of the Interior “to review prior monument designations and suggest legislative changes or modifications to [these] proclamations.”
In President Trump, we have a leader who is committed to defending the Western way of life. I am deeply grateful for his willingness to work with us to undo the harm caused by the overreach of his predecessors.
In protecting our public lands, I look forward to working with the Trump administration to establish a new precedent of collaboration and trust between states and the federal government.
I yield the floor.
