It would be tougher to designate national monuments under different legislation introduced in both houses of Congress.
In the House, Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC) introduced the Preserve Land Freedom for Americans Act (H.R. 382), which would require the Department of the Interior to get permission from the governor and legislature of a state before designating a national monument in any state. The bill would also prohibit Interior from placing any restrictions on public use of a national monument until getting state approval and conducting a public review process.
Foxx picked up 13 cosponsors for her bill, which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources.
Read about the bill at http://thomas.loc.gov/cgi-bin/bdquery/D?d113:1:./temp/~bdRnC2:@@@X|/home/LegislativeData.php|.
Fox introduced the same measure two years ago but it didn't make it out of committee.
Meanwhile, over in the Senate, Sen. David Vitter (R-LA) introduced the National Monuments Act of 2013, which would require Congress to approve national monument designation and would also require public input before Interior could restrict public use of national monument land.
Vitter picked up no original cosponsors for his bill, which was referred to the Committee on Energy & Natural Resources.
Vitter also introduced the bill two years ago and it went nowhere.
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