President Obama's latest round of national monument designations today has sparked House Republicans to ramp up the rhetoric against a more-than-century-old law that allows presidents to bypass Congress and establish such protected areas. House Natural Resources Chairman Rob Bishop (R-Utah) labeled as "shameful" today's designations of the 704,000-acre Basin and Range National Monument in east- central Nevada and two other smaller sites in Texas and California. He vowed that his committee will "try and rectify" the broad powers that he said give presidents too much authority to permanently close off public lands through monument designations.
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