Congressional Democrats and tribal leaders are renewing criticisms of President Donald Trump for scaling back two national monuments in Utah following a wider review of lands protected around the country by past presidents.
Democratic members of the House Natural Resources Committee said during a hearing Wednesday in Washington that the 2017 national monument review had a predetermined outcome and didn’t take into account tribal interests despite some of the lands being sacred to them.
Committee chairman Raul Grijalva of Arizona says he believes the monuments were downsized to open up the lands for the extraction of coal and uranium.
State and federal agencies that approve permits say no mining has occurred on the lands cut from the monuments in December 2017 so far.
Republicans on the committee defended the cuts as “right-sizing” monuments.
