But the good news is that there is a better way, and it is called the Public Lands Initiative (PLI) which is a piece of legislation that has been written to achieve what a monument designation cannot.

Taking care of ancestral land, protecting and preserving it for the next generation, is not optional for many Native Americans.

I believe that states have a significant role to solve problems of most of the issues that we talk about today.

I think it's the best way to bring consensus and bring good will out of the end product.

A unilateral monument designation will divide the people, not only here in Utah, but elsewhere.

Many of the promises the Obama Administration has made to the Bears Ears Coalition may well be sincere but history, in my opinion, suggests that many of those promises are likely to prove hollow just based on our track record.

I also believe in accountability. Those who are elected by the people bear the burden of accountability of those who have put them into office.

The Antiquities Act, which the President would use to make a national monument designation, simply does not allow for the inclusive, grassroots-based, land management required by these shared goals that I have outlined.

One of the biggest lessons, I think, we've learned over time is that local input is critical to getting success and to get buy in to whatever the solution is to the problem at hand.

we still have animus anger and distrust for the Federal Government because of that lack of process and having something done to us that we have evidence of visceral anger still today because of that process.

If you really care about the land this is not some kind of a political tomahawk to be used.

The process involved with the PLI is, in fact, the right way.

There is no law, there is no judicial precedent that guarantees that Native Americans will have continued access to or use of their sacred sites on this land, if that land is, in fact, designated as a national monument.

These supposed protections, supposed protections that are often invoked by people who are wanting to promote the idea of a national monument, quickly deteriorate.

No, there's no way under existing law that you can have the co-management that the Administration is talking about.

If the President issues a proclamation under the Antiquities Act saying I, President Barack Obama, hereby designate the Bears Ears as a national monument...

Reforming the IOAS exception through remedial legislation is long overdue, and we urge Congress to act.

the total outstanding Federal debt has risen by more than $8.7 trillion during President Obama's tenure, to almost $19.4 trillion today. That is the highest level of Federal debt in U.S. history and, relative to the size of the economy, is…