230 State Legislators Advocate Obama Use Executive Authority to Protect Public Lands

摘要

President Barack Obama should make more use of administrative powers to protect public lands, ac-cording to an April 15 letter to the president signed by 230 state legislators. The letter, organized by the National Caucus of Environmental Legislators and the advocacy group Environment America, urged the president to consider wielding executive authority such as that provided by the Antiquities Act (16 U.S. Code 431), which allows the president to create national monuments without approval from Congress. The letter characterized the issue as a contest between recreational use and other uses of public lands. It placed its emphasis on the idea of protection the lands for recreation.