U.S. SENATE News:

WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) has issued the following statement after the Department of the Interior finalized resource management plans for the reduced Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in Utah by releasing two Records of Decision:

“The Trump administration is steamrolling forward on the president’s unprecedented—and, I believe, illegal—order to drastically shrink the boundaries and weaken protections in two of America’s national monuments.

“The landscapes and significant cultural sites within the original Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument boundaries are unquestionably the types of places that the Antiquities Act was intended to protect. These public lands are wholly inappropriate places for mining and development.

“I continue to stand with the millions of Americans, including tribes whose ancestral sites reside within these monuments, who have called for protecting our public lands. We have a moral responsibility to defend and conserve these monuments for our children and future generations.”