Maurice Hinchey: “this is the Here Today Gone Tomorrow Monument Act. It would make two changes in the law regarding large presidentially…”

“this is the Here Today Gone Tomorrow Monument Act. It would make two changes in the law regarding large presidentially proclaimed monuments. First, it would require the President to provide 30 days notice prior to a proclamation. And that is no surprise. As Secretary Babbitt has said, and I quote, ``The notice period would provide both incentive and opportunity to stake mining claims and carry out other development activities which could irreparably impair the ability of the President to protect the area.'' That is not just speculation. The opponents of the Grand Canyon and Arches proclamations, to mention just two specifically, said they wanted to mine those areas. Second, it would sunset a monument proclamation after 2 years if Congress did not enact legislation approving it. That means that a single Senator opposed to a monument could block it by putting a hold on the bill or a monument could be gone tomorrow simply because of delays and oversights. We can be sure once the monument declaration expired, the people who wanted to stake mining claims would be out there in force. That is what the gentleman from Minnesota [Mr. Vento] meant about protecting the taxpayers. Put another way, if this substitute had been in effect in 1908, the chances are that much of the Grand Canyon today would be an abandoned mining site; chances are that some of our other national monuments and others would be covered by mill tailings.…”