Stop the destruction of our National Treasures

Kill the Monument Bill (HR 1459)

Vote against HR 1459 or introduce counter-proposals to keep the Tea Party from destroying the single most effective tool to protecting our national heritage.

Why is this important?

"Leave it as it is. The ages have been at work on it and man can only mar it." --Theodore Roosevelt on the Grand Canyon

For more than a hundred years, the Antiquities Act of 1906, brainchild of Theodore Roosevelt, has ensured that the executive branch can move quickly to stop business from destroying our national cultural resources by declaring them national monuments. The act allows the president to bypass the bureaucratic nightmare that is Congress and protect our national heritage directly. Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument in Hawaii, and most recently the archaeologically important Chimney Rock Monument in Colorado are but a few examples of national heritage sites created by this act. Not only are these sites intrinsic parts of our national heritage, the tourism generated thereof is of massive significance economically, bringing money and attention to places that otherwise would get nothing (for instance, many Arizonan small towns near the Grand Canyon). 

HR 1459, which passed the House on March 26th, proposes to subject each antiquities proclamation to the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) of 1969, which would mean that monuments would only be even truly considered after an average waiting time of six years, without holds on fracking, mining, or other harmful activities. It also limits each president to one proclamation per term. This renders the Antiquities Act completely useless and would allow Big Money to wantonly destroy American heritage sites for their own profit. Rob Bishop, the sponsor, says this is to allow public involvement in the site; but in reality, the amendment simply allows Congress to hold prospective monuments hostage while corporations tear them apart. 

Vote against the amendment; doing otherwise would be an unforgivable betrayal of American heritage and of the American people.

http://www.credomobilize.com/petitions/kill-the-monument-bill-hr-1459?sp_ref=50321700.4.7406.o.1.2&source=clickcopy_sp