The Honorable Donna F. Edwards
H.R. 1459, the Ensuring Public Involvement in the Creation of National Monuments Act
March 26, 2014
I thank the gentleman for yielding.
Mr. Chairman, I want to join my colleagues in opposition to H.R. 1459, the Ensuring Public Involvement in the Creation of National Monuments Act. It sounds good, but it should be known as the “Preventing New Parks Act.”
This bill would severely restrict this and any future President’s authority to establish a national monument, eliminating a crucial part of our Nation’s conservation strategy. In this current poisonous climate, the majority has made it nearly impossible for Congress to conserve land for future generations using the legislative process. This past Congress, in fact, was the first since World War II to not protect a single acre of land as a national park, monument, or wilderness area – not one single acre.
Just last year, there was a significant bipartisan effort on the part of the President and others to designate the Harriet Tubman National Historical Parks Act, of which I am an original cosponsor, but that bill failed to even make it out of the committee – with public support and with family support, failed to make it out of committee. Just yesterday, we celebrated the first anniversary of the Harriet Tubman Underground Railroad National Monument located in my State of Maryland and designated as a national monument by President Obama using his authority under the Antiquities Act.
I was in the Oval Office with the descendants of Harriet Tubman and the people of that community who had been working for years for this designation. I saw what it meant to the community. They believed that it meant economic development, also.
Had H.R. 1459 been passed a year ago, this monument to a national hero would probably be stuck in the arbitrary hurdles and redundant research this bill proposes.
National monuments are an important part of telling our American story, and yet, currently, only 26 of our Nation’s 460 national parks have a primary focus on African Americans, and just eight are dedicated to women. That includes the Harriet Tubman Park.
Rather than rolling back the President’s ability to preserve both our national history and our natural heritage, we should be encouraging this and future administrations to continue to work for the common good – for the public good – that this necessary preservation work entails.
I urge my colleagues to oppose this restrictive bill, and I urge a “no” vote on the bill.
