1. Home
  2. Press Release
  3. STATEMENT: Public Lands Initiative Hearing Demonstrates Why a Monument Declaration is the Only Viable Option for Protecting Bears Ears

STATEMENT: Public Lands Initiative Hearing Demonstrates Why a Monument Declaration is the Only Viable Option for Protecting Bears Ears

Sep 14, 2016

Issue: Land Protection
Subject: Lobbying & Politics, National Monuments, Utah

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 14, 2016

DENVER—In response to the House Public Lands Subcommittee holding its first and only hearing on Rep. Rob Bishop’s Public Lands Initiative bill, the Center for Western Priorities released the following statement from Executive Director Jennifer Rokala:

“The partisan rancor at today’s subcommittee hearing confirms everything we’ve suspected about the PLI—Chairman Bishop wrote a massive bill without making a serious attempt to build the bipartisan support a true compromise would require to pass both chambers of Congress. By waiting until late September to mark up his bill, Congressman Bishop chose to run out the clock on the PLI, knowing it has no chance of becoming law. Bears Ears is still in urgent need of protection, and it’s now obvious to everyone involved that the only way that can happen is through President Obama’s leadership.”

After today’s hearing, Rep. Bishop will have just 26 working days left in Congress to pass the PLI, assuming the House works through the end of September as scheduled.

Read More

For more information, visit westernpriorities.org. To speak with an expert on public lands, contact Aaron Weiss at 720-279-0019 or aaron@westernpriorities.org.

Read the full blog post

Related Press Releases

Bears Ears Opponents Distorting Truth About Tribal Access to National Monuments

This week Interior Secretary Sally Jewell and several senior Obama administration officials traveled to Bluff, Utah where they heard from thousands of people about the need to protect the Bears Ears region, a scenic area of southeastern Utah home to an estimated 100,000 archaeological sites that are threatened by looting and vandalism. A coalition of […]

July 20, 2016

For 80 years, politicians have been all talk but no action when it comes to Bears Ears

This Saturday, Interior Secretary Sally Jewell will travel to Utah to hold a public meeting on the proposal to protect 1.9 million acres of land in a new Bears Ears National Monument. Faced with ongoing looting, grave robbing, and other threats to the estimated 100,000 cultural sites in the region, five Native American tribes have […]

July 13, 2016

Time for Utah to Take a U-Turn From its Reckless Efforts to Seize Public Lands

The Center for Western Priorities is calling on Utah’s leaders to make a U-turn from their reckless attempts to seize American public lands.

May 25, 2016

New Poll: Both Rural and Urban Westerners Oppose States Taking Over Our American Lands

Despite the high-profile protests of the Bundy family against the federal government, new public opinion research by the Colorado College State of the Rockies Project shows broad support for U.S. land managers as well as widespread opposition to attempts to turn over national public lands to state or private management. But what’s particularly compelling is […]

January 14, 2016

Four Myths (and One Truth) Rob Bishop Spreads About the Land & Water Conservation Fund

It’s been two months since Rep. Rob Bishop (R-UT), the powerful chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, let the Land and Water Conservation Fund expire, ending a fifty-year program that successfully protected and built America’s local, state, and national parks. Despite huge bipartisan support for its permanent reauthorization, LWCF expired because Rep. Bishop has […]

November 2, 2015