Jeff Duncan: “Today in the Subcommittee on National Parks we heard testimony which should be disturbing to all Americans. In fact, we…”

“Today in the Subcommittee on National Parks we heard testimony which should be disturbing to all Americans. In fact, we heard Senator Orrin Hatch testify that in 20 years in the Senate, he had never seen such an arrogant abuse of power. He was referring to the sneak attack by the Federal Government just before the last election to lock up 1.7 million acres in the State of Utah to produce what is called a national monument. This monument would be in the Escalante-Grand Staircase section of southern Utah. However, there are several reasons why this particular land grab has been questioned like no other in U.S. history. First, it was done with no public discussion or hearings of any type, no vote by the Congress, the Utah State legislature, or the people of Utah. In fact, the Governor of Utah testified at our hearing that the first notice any Utah public official had was when they read about it 9 days beforehand in the Washington Post. This raises the second serious question, the secrecy, the coverup. Not only were high ranking officials not notified, but Senator Bennett testified that he now has administration documents which say that it cannot be emphasized enough that public disclosure would have stopped the designation because such an outcry would have been created. It almost makes you wonder if we have people running our Government today who want to run things in the secret, shadowy way of the former Soviet Union or other dictatorships.”