Rep. Denny Rehberg Salvo Against New Monuments To Get Hearing

Montana Republican Rep. Denny Rehberg's proposal to forbid presidents from using a 105-year-old law to designate national monuments gets a hearing Tuesday in Washington, D.C.

Rehberg's measure will be considered by the Subcommittee on National Parks, Forests and Public Lands.

Rehberg's proposed Montana Land Sovereignty Act is among bills aimed at amending the Antiquities Act of 1906 or barring the president from unilaterally declaring national monuments in certain western states.

Rehberg has joined ranchers enraged last year by a U.S. Interior Department proposal to designate about a dozen new national monuments across the West, including northeastern Montana prairie land.

Some of this rural fury lingers after the creation of the Upper Missouri River Breaks National Monument by then-President Bill Clinton in 2001.

Associated Press