Today, the Subcommittee on Federal Lands held a legislative hearing on H.R. 5780 (Chairman Rob Bishop, R-UT), Utah Public Lands Initiative Act, which designates and exchanges certain federal and non-federal land in the state of Utah for conservation, economic development, and recreational purposes. The bill, a historic and locally-driven effort that included 1200 meetings to draw input from all sides, will create land-use certainty for local communities and land users.

During his opening statement, Chairman Bishop outlined four major accomplishments of the bill. H.R. 5780 will:

1.       “Guarantee recreation opportunities for Utahns that will be there permanently…”

2.       “Provide areas that the primary purpose will be for economic development so the business community knows where they can and cannot invest…”

3.       “Provide permanent conservation—done by Congress not by fiat…”

4.       “Give areas to the state so they can develop destination spots that would improve the value of that land and the value of the economy of the state of Utah…”

Witness Rebecca Benally, Commissioner of the San Juan County Commission, voiced her strong support for the bill. She called Native American support for President Obama unilaterally declaring a national monument at Bears Ears a hoax.  

“Trusting the federal government, especially agencies within the Dept. of Interior, has not worked out well for the Navajo people. If history is our guide, we would be crazy to do so again and expect a different result. 200 years of broken promises […] tells us all we need to know,” Benally said.

H.R. 5780 permanently protects 1.4 million acres of the Bears Ears region. Unlike a unilateral monument designation, which would minimize tribal input in land-use decisions and restrict cultural and spiritual activities, H.R. 5780 protects the land while guaranteeing protections for tribal management and decision-making.

The federally-controlled lands that will be acquired by the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration under H.R. 5780 are expected to yield significant revenue to Utah’s public school system. Director of the Utah School and Institutional Trust Lands Administration, David Ure, called H.R. 5780 the byproduct of a “balancing act” and consensus building.

Ure supports the bill and believes it’s the best path forward for conservation. Everyone agrees that particularly beautiful canyon land in Utah should be preserved, but he asked, “the question is, how do you preserve it? Do you preserve it with a scalpel as we’re doing in [the Utah Public Lands Initiative Act], or do you take an axe or a chainsaw and do it as some are suggesting and do a monument?”

Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) who has co-led the PLI effort with Bishop, stated the bill is the only bipartisan option.

“There is but one option if you want a bipartisan solution to this and that is the Public Lands Initiative. It would be entirely arrogant and offensive to a lot of people, people who have lived there for generations, to just have a president who has never been there and will never go there, to just unilaterally change the designation on millions of acres,” Chaffetz said.

The Utah Public Lands Initiative Act has something the Obama administration’s proposal to unilaterally designate Bears Ears National Monument does not: strong local support.

"I’m not sure who President Obama thinks he is accountable to, but here in Congress we believe it’s our constituents. Ultimately, it is up to our elected officials, such as Chairman Bishop, Chairman Chaffetz and Commissioner Rebecca Benally, to represent their local residents and be held accountable for their land use choices," Subcommittee Chairman Tom McClintock (R-CA) said.

Click here to view local support for the Utah Public Lands Initiative.

Click here to view full witness testimony.