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Utah House urges reversal and boundary changes for two national monuments after heated debate
Summary
After hours of debate over local control, tribal sovereignty and economic impacts, the Utah House passed HCR 11 urging the president to rescind the Bears Ears National Monument (60–14) and HCR 12 urging federal legislation to reduce or modify Grand Staircase–Escalante boundaries (61–13); both measures were sent to the Senate.
The Utah House of Representatives voted on Jan. 31, 2017 to adopt two concurrent resolutions pressing for changes to federal national-monument designations affecting southern Utah.
In separate roll calls, the House passed House Concurrent Resolution 11, urging the president to rescind the Bears Ears National Monument designation, by a 60–14 vote; and House Concurrent Resolution 12, urging federal legislation to reduce or modify the boundaries of the Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, by a 61–13 vote. Both resolutions will be transmitted to the Utah Senate for consideration.
The measures touched off a wide-ranging floor debate that ranged from constitutional objections to monument designations and concerns about local economic effects to arguments about tribal sovereignty and long-running federal planning. Representative Hughes, presenting HCR 11, described the December 2016 Bears Ears designation as an example of an overly broad executive action that "encumber[ed] over a million acres" and said the House should…
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