Bill Bennett: “in the last Congress, by coincidence, on my birthday, President Clinton announced the creation of the Grand…”

“in the last Congress, by coincidence, on my birthday, President Clinton announced the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument, taking 1.7 million acres in the State of Utah and creating a national monument under the authority of the Antiquities Act of 1906. This, frankly, caught a number of us by complete surprise --well, maybe not complete surprise, because we had seen reports in the newspaper that this might be coming. But whenever we spoke to anybody in the administration about it, we were constantly told that no decision has been made. Congressman Orton, the Democratic Congressman in the district in which this land was located, was told ``nothing is imminent.'' Even 24 hours before the announcement was made, people in the White House were insisting that nothing was coming down on this particular subject. And then, as I say, on the morning of my birthday, I received a phone call from Leon Panetta, not to wish me happy birthday, but to inform me that the President would indeed be creating a new national monument in Utah under his authority as outlined in the Antiquities Act. The process by which the monument was put together was entirely closed to any elected official. No one from the State of Utah who holds elected office--not the Governor, neither of the Members of this body, not the Members of the other body, no one--was allowed to make comments or be involved in the process of creating the monument.”