Press Releases

Washington, DC — Representative Salud Carbajal (CA-24) led 26 Members of Congress in a letter to President Trump demanding he publicly release his formal report asking President Trump to reduce protections on a number of 27 national monuments under review as part of Executive Order 13795, including the Carrizo Plain National Monument on the Central Coast.

In a report sent to Trump on August 24^th, Secretary of the Interior Ryan Zinke reportedly asked the President to shrink ‘a handful’ of national monuments previously designated to protect our nation’s environmentally significant open spaces. The Trump Administration has not yet made those recommendations public.

“Since President Trump announced his misguided review of our public lands, I’ve called on the administration to leave them untouched and protected for future generations,” said Rep. Carbajal. “Now, the President is keeping recommendations to alter the boundaries of these monuments a secret. The American people deserve to know what the President’s intentions are for our public lands.”

The letter was signed by Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ-03), Rep. Alan Lowenthal (CA-47), Rep. Jared Huffman (CA-02), Rep. Jared Polis (CO-02), Rep. Gwen Moore (WI-04), Rep. Donald Beyer, Jr. (VA-08), Rep. Marcy Kaptur (OH-09), Rep. Daniel Lipinski (IL-03), Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-07), Rep. Grace Napolitano (CA-32), Rep. Juan Vargas (CA-51), Rep. Madeleine Bordallo (GU), Rep. Adam Smith (WA-09), Rep. Julia Brownley (CA-26), Rep. Betty McCollum (MN-04), Adam Schiff (CA-28), Rep. Jimmy Panetta (CA-20), Rep. Norma Torres (CA-35), Rep. John Garamendi (CA-03), Rep. Mike Thompson (CA-05), Rep. Stephen Lynch (MA-08), Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), Rep. Earl Blumenauer (OR-03), Rep. Lucille Roybal-Allard (CA-40) Rep. Carol Shea-Porter (NH-01), and Rep. Jan Schakowsky (IL-09).

Full text of the letter can be found here and below:

The Honorable Donald J. Trump                               

President of the United States                                   

1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, N.W.                             

Washington, D.C. 20500                                           

Subject: Executive Order 13792 Review Report 

Dear President Trump:

We are writing to ask that you release the report that was submitted to the White House on August 24, 2017. This report included Secretary Zinke’s findings and proposed recommendations for executive or legislative actions on national monuments designations and expansions that were under review as a result of Executive Order 13792.

More than 2.7 million Americans wrote in overwhelming numbers to the Department of the Interior expressing their support for maintaining and protecting our public lands. They deserve to know the fate of some of our nation’s most cherished national monuments, like the Carrizo Plain and Giant Sequoia National Monuments in California. 

The Antiquities Act of 1906 authorizes the establishment of national monuments to protect our public lands. Since then, 16 Presidents—both Democratic and Republican—have designated a total of 157 national monuments across the country. Our nation’s public lands are a treasured aspect of our outdoor heritage and archaeological history, and an essential asset to our local outdoor and tourism economies.

In the United States, the outdoor economy generates $887 billion in consumer spending annually, which goes on to support 7.6 million jobs, $65.3 billion in federal tax revenue and $59.2 billion in local and state revenue. The 7.6 million hard-working Americans whose jobs depend on outdoor recreation spurred by our public lands deserve to know the fate of our national monuments and their designations. By not releasing this report, the millions of Americans whose economic livelihood is tied to these public lands will continue to needlessly be in limbo.

Any decision about public lands demands transparency, not secrecy. We respectfully ask you to release the report and bring certainty to the American public.

Sincerely,

Members of Congress

###