On March 21, 2023, President Joe Biden designated Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in southern Nevada. Located at the confluence of the Mojave and Sonoran Deserts, the national monument protects innumerable objects of historic and scientific interest, including its namesake Avi Kwa Ame – or Spirit Mountain – and the surrounding arid valleys and mountain ranges that are historically important and sacred places for several Tribal Nations. (Department of the Interior photo)
Nevada’s only Republican in Congress, Rep. Mark Amodei, announced plans Thursday for legislation that would require Congressional approval of all future national monuments in Nevada.
That would mark a major change from current federal laws that allow the President to designate a monument with or without congressional approval under powers granted through the Antiquities Act of 1906.
Since the passage of the Antiquities Act in 1906, 18 presidents – nine Democratic and nine Republican – have established or expanded more than 160 national monuments, according to the Congressional Research Service.
The “Ending Presidential Overreach on Public Lands Act” — sponsored by Amodei and Republican Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy — would strip presidential authority to unilaterally designate national monuments and require congressional approval for future designations.
Western states have “long been burned by executive actions on public lands and monument designations that bypass input from Congress and local governments,” said Amodei, whose district covers huge swaths of public land in Northern Nevada.
“I am a firm believer that the best lands policy is generated by the local communities who actually live off of these lands, not Washington bureaucrats,” said Amodei in a statement. “This legislation overturns years of a one-sided approach on major land management decisions and ensures Western communities are given a seat at the table for any future monument designations.”
In Nevada, the Antiquities Act has spurred the creation of four national monuments since 2015: the Basin and Range National Monument in Nye County, and the Gold Butte National Monument, Tule Springs Fossil Bed National Monument, and the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Clark County. None of those are in Amodei’s congressional district.
Together, Nevada’s national monuments have conserved more than 153,000 acres of public land from development and extraction.
All four of Nevada’s national monuments were created by Democratic presidents.
Nevada’s most recent national monument, the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument, was designated last year in March by outgoing president Joe Biden after decades of advocacy by the Fort Mojave Indian Tribe and locals. Nevada’s other three national monuments were created by former President Barack Obama.
An ongoing campaign by a coalition of tribes — the Ely Shoshone, Duckwater Shoshone, and the Confederated Tribes of the Goshute Reservation — is also pushing for a fifth national monument in White Pine County, which would be in Amodei’s district.
This is not the first time Amodei has introduced legislation to upend the Antiquities Act. In 2017, Amodei partnered with former Republican Sen. Dean Heller on the “Nevada Land Sovereignty Act” in response to the creation of Nevada’s first national monument by Obama, the Basin and Range National Monument.
Mathilda Miller, director of Native Voters Alliance Nevada, argued that if passed, the bill would threaten Tribal sovereignty and cultural preservation, and urged Congress to reject it.
Miller pointed to broad support for the creation of the recently designated Avi Kwa Ame National Monument as an example of Nevadans’ support for public land protections through executive action.
“Congressman Amodei’s claims that the Antiquities Act ignores local voices are not only false—they’re offensive. The truth is clear: Avi Kwa Ame would not have been protected without an overwhelming wave of local support,” Miller said.
Utah’s Maloy, cosponsor of the Ending Presidential Overreach on Public Lands Act, argued the bill would “rebalance the powers between Congress and the executive branch and restore transparency and accountability to these designations.”
“Presidents have continued to abuse that narrow authority to designate millions of acres of land in Utah and across the West without proper Congressional oversight,” Maloy said.
Since its creation, there have been some modifications to the powers of the Antiquities Act. Nearly half a century ago, Congress passed the Federal Land Policy and Management Act of 1976, which clarifies that only Congress has the authority to modify or revoke national monument designations.
In recent years, more Republican lawmakers have expressed disapproval of the broad powers of the Antiquities Act. Incoming President Donald Trump has sharply criticized past presidents’ use of the Antiquities Act, but he’s also used the law to create national monuments.
Trump reduced the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante monuments in southern Utah, which were created by Obama shortly before he left office. The monuments were eventually restored by Biden. Trump also created the Camp Nelson National Monument in Kentucky, a Civil War-era recruitment center for African American Union soldiers.
Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo criticized the use of the Antiquities Act to create the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in Clark County shortly after his election, citing “several concerns” about the monument’s potential disruption of “rare earth mineral mining projects and long-planned bi-partisan economic development efforts.”
“This kind of ‘Washington Knows Best’ policy might win plaudits from unaccountable special interests, but it’s going to cost our state jobs and economic opportunity – all while making land more expensive and more difficult to develop,” said Lombardo in response to the Avi Kwa Ame National Monument designation in March.
Conservation groups, however, point to the positive economic and conservation impacts of national parks in the state as a reason to support national monuments in Nevada.
In 2023, park visitors at the Great Basin National Park spent an estimated $15.4 million in local gateway regions, while the Tule Springs Fossil Beds National Monument brought in $4 million in spending from park visitors, according to the National Park Service.