This budget proposal has already achieved a miracle. It has made the Democrats suddenly very concerned about the debt.

Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands meets to consider H.R. 4532, the Shash Jaa National Monument and Indian Creek National Monument Act, by Congressman John Curtis and co-sponsored by the entire Utah congressional delegation.

the essence of the legislative process, which is, once again, why the Constitution gives Congress authority over these matters, not the President, so that these voices can be heard.

The over-arching objectives of this Subcommittee bear repeating: to restore public access to the public lands, to restore good management to the public lands, and to restore the Federal Government as a good neighbor to those communities…

And they have every right to demand that Congress reassert its role over management of the lands on their behalf.

It should be done legislatively. Rather than just a stroke of a pen and somebody's arbitrary decision making.

This bill seeks to right a wrong and to go about monument designation the constitutional way.

The Antiquities Act of 1906 delegated limited authority to the President to designate national monuments.

The Constitution gives sole jurisdiction over the public lands to the Congress.

I wish my colleagues from other states where the Federal Government holds maybe 1 percent of the land area would consider what would happen to their communities if the Federal Government suddenly took over 93 percent of the land area.

Perhaps that is why our Constitution gives to Congress, and not to the President, authority over the public lands, so that decisions like this that affect the livelihoods of families across the West would be done in the open.

And they have every right to demand that Congress reassert its roll over management of the public lands on their behalf.