Idaho Gop Decries Utah Land-Grab Bills Would Require Ok By Congress Before Idaho Monuments Can Be Created

President Clinton’s designation of a 1.7 million-acre national monument in Utah has Idaho’s congressional delegation scrambling to prevent a similar land-grab in their state.

Bills introduced in the House and Senate on Thursday would require congressional approval of any Idaho land set aside for a national monument.

Sen. Larry Craig and Reps. Mike Crapo and Helen Chenoweth, all Republicans seeking re-election, said Clinton’s actions under the 1906 Antiquities Act was a serious violation of public trust.

“We don’t want this president or any president running roughshod over Idaho,” Craig said Thursday on the Senate floor.

A White House aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, defended Clinton.

“The Antiquities Act has been used 100 times by many presidents,” the aide said. “People had been debating Utah land almost every day for 50 years. The President consulted with people in the state and made the decision.”

Clinton announced the creation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument on Wednesday while campaigning in the West. The federally controlled area, roughly the size of Yellowstone National Park, is known for breathtaking rock formations - as well as its rich veins of coal.

Clinton invoked the 90-year-old Antiquities Act to create the monument without congressional approval. Theodore Roosevelt used the same law in 1908 to protect the Grand Canyon from development.

It was the same law used by former President Jimmy Carter on the advice of his Interior secretary, former Idaho Gov. Cecil Andrus, to preserve the Alaska wilderness lands in the 1970s.

While environmentalists praised Clinton’s actions, local officials and industries protested the move, which will block any widescale development or mining of the land.

A Deseret News poll published Thursday suggests that Utah residents oppose the creation of the new monument. The poll found 49 percent of the 606 people interviewed oppose the monument, while 29 percent support it. Also, 68 percent of those surveyed said they believed Clinton was tending to election-year politics in making the decision. Chenoweth joined members of the Utah congressional delegation in condemning the president’s use of the obscure but legitimate power.

“Somebody needs to remind President Clinton this is not a dictatorship,” Chenoweth said. “He didn’t consult with anybody who stood to lose in Utah… If anyone ever doubted that the war on the West continues, this shows it. We wouldn’t see this kind of action in New York, New Jersey or Vermont.”

A law similar to the one introduced by the Idaho delegation has existed in Wyoming since 1950, and was the basis of the legislation introduced Thursday. Named the Idaho Land Protection Act, it requires public participation and an express act of Congress before any Idaho land can be designated a national monument.

Ten federal agencies control more than 33.7 million acres of Idaho land - 64 percent of the state.

Jack Sept of the Bureau of Land Management said he knew of no plans to designate any land in Idaho as a national monument.

Alaska is the only other state that has a prohibition on declaration of land for a national monument; it requires congressional approval within one year for any executive action that exceeds 5,000 acres.

Craig said the hasty designation of the Utah land flew in the face of a deliberate process of public hearings and congressional consultation provided in the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969.

“The President failed to take that into his thinking,” Craig said. “I’m not disputing that the president acted legally. I’m disputing the lack of public input and public trust.”

Craig said he hoped the measure could be added to an appropriations bill and was optimistic it could be passed before Congress recesses for the fall campaign season.

Sen. Dirk Kempthorne, R-Idaho, co-sponsored the Senate version of the bill.

, DataTimes The following fields overflowed: BYLINE = Patrick Strawbridge Staff writer The Associated Press contributed to this report.