Nevada lawmakers slam Trump admin’s review of national monuments

By Alan Halaly

As Donald Trump’s Cabinet pick who governs federal lands and waters begins his review of national monument designations across the country, Nevada’s congressional delegation has a message.

“Make no mistake: We will resist any efforts to come after our preserved lands and protected spaces,” the five lawmakers wrote in a joint letter to Doug Burgum, the secretary of the Interior Department.

Mirroring the same action taken under Trump’s first administration, ex-North Dakota Gov. Burgum initiated a process where Interior staff will scrutinize past presidents’ decisions to designate certain lands as national monuments.

When the Trump administration conducted a review last time, several size reductions were recommended, including to Nevada’s Gold Butte National Monument northeast of Las Vegas. Interior moved forward with only two reductions in Utah.

The letter, sent on Friday, was signed by Democratic Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen and Reps. Susie Lee, Dina Titus and Steven Horsford.

Nevada’s sole federal lawmaker who is Republican, Rep. Mark Amodei, has been vocal about his criticism of the president’s authority to create national monuments, even proposing a law that would require a president to seek congressional approval before designating a new one.

An Interior Department spokesperson declined to comment on the letter Friday, saying it was against policy to discuss congressional correspondence through the media.

Democrats urge public outreach

A national monument designation effectively rules out mining, oil or gas activity on those lands — something that environmentalists have worried is a hindrance to Trump’s mandate to “drill, baby, drill” on public lands.

It’s an open legal question whether a president can undermine a past president’s authority to designate national monuments under the Antiquities Act of 1906. Conservationists launched a lawsuit to challenge the Trump administration, but it stalled once former President Joe Biden reversed Trump’s decision to reduce the two Utah monuments.

The Democratic lawmakers pointed to a Bloomberg article with a quote from Burgum, where he suggested conservation and energy production don’t have to be conflicting missions.

“We agree, and intend to hold you and your department to this essential pledge, particularly when it comes to preserving our national monuments,” the lawmakers wrote. “We urge the administration to refrain from attempts to unilaterally alter lands with existing national monument designations, as we’ve seen before.”

Is Avi Kwa Ame safe?

Some conservationists have had their eyes on protecting Avi Kwa Ame National Monument in particular. Biden designated the 500,000-acre Native American heritage site in 2023 with the overwhelming support of Native tribes and the local community, though Republican Gov. Joe Lombardo wasn’t supportive at the time.

The lawmakers emphasized that none of Nevada’s national monuments was protected “on a whim,” encouraging the Trump administration to do its due diligence in reaching out to the public before it decides to alter land boundaries.

“To revoke the national monument status of Avi Kwa Ame would be to spit in the face of the Nevadans, who widely supported the designation,” Mandi Elliott, executive director of the Nevada Outdoor Business Coalition, said in a statement Friday.