Utah Rep Wants This to Be Trump's 20th Executive Action

Rep. Rob Bishop wants the Bears Ears decision reversed
By Kate Seamons,  Newser Staff
Posted Feb 5, 2017 4:30 PM CST
Utah Rep Wants This to Be Trump's 20th Executive Action
This May 23, 2016, file photo, shows the northernmost boundary of the proposed Bears Ears region, along the Colorado River, in southeastern Utah. Utah's House of Representatives has passed a resolution asking President Donald Trump to repeal the newly named Bears Ears National Monument.    (Francisco Kjolseth/The Salt Lake Tribune via AP, File)

President Trump has taken 19 executive actions since taking office, the AP reports. Rep. Rob Bishop has a No. 20 in mind. NPR reports on the Utah Republican's push to undo the Bears Ears National Monument created by Barack Obama during his last days in office. It was a highly controversial move that bans new development (think oil, cattle grazing) across its 1.3 million acres. The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition pushed Obama to use the power granted to him under the 1906 Antiquities Act to make the land a national monument, and the president did exactly that. Bishop wants Trump to strike the move, or reduce Bears Ears' scope.

But as NPR reports, undoing a national monument so big wouldn't just be unprecedented—it's also unclear if Trump can do it. The Act gives Congress alone the power to undo a designation, giving presidents just to power to designate. "Legally, it's untested," said Interior Secretary nominee Ryan Zinke during his Senate confirmation hearing. Bishop isn't the only one asking, though: On Friday Utah Governor Gary Herbert signed House Concurrent Resolution 11, which asks Trump to undo the monument. Fox13 relays some hearsay: Herbert says he heard Trump could make a move on the monument this coming week. The Native American tribes who fought for the monument say they'll sue if that does come to pass. Read more on the battle for Bears Ears here. (More Bears Ears stories.)

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