Full Bill Text

Vote Smart's Synopsis:

Vote to pass a bill that amends the process for the president to designate national monuments.

Highlights:

• Prohibits the president from declaring more than 1 tract of land per state as a national monument during his or her 4-year term without an express act of Congress (Sec. 2).

• Requires the Council on Environmental Quality to review a historic landmark, a historic or prehistoric structure, or another object of historic or scientific interest which the president has declared a national monument before the land officially becomes a national monument (Sec. 2).

• Prohibits the president from declaring a tract of land that includes private property as a national monument without the informed written consent of the owner of the private property (Sec. 2).

• Specifies that a tract of land less than 5,000 acres is exempt from other provisions of this bill and that the declaration of the land as a national monument will expire after 3 years unless the monument meets the following requirements (Sec. 2):
• The land is declared a monument by federal statute; or
• The land is reviewed by the Council on Environmental Quality. 

• Requires a feasibility study on a declared national monument to be submitted to the House and Senate Committees on Natural Resources, to be made available on the Department of Interior’s website no later than 1 year after the declaration, and to include the following information (Sec. 2):
• An estimate of costs associated with managing the monument in perpetuity;
• An estimate of costs that includes any loss of federal and state revenue; and
• An estimate of the number of jobs created and tourism dollars associated with managing the monument in perpetuity.

Full Bill Text

Full Bill Text