A congressman from Maine has introduced legislation aimed at preventing the president of the United States from designating a national monument in the Pine Tree State without approval from the state legislature and governor.
Rep. Bruce Poliquin last week introduced "Preserving States Rights," a two-page measure that succinctly states, "proclamations may be made only for national monuments that have been approved by the State legislature and governor of each state in which the monument would be located."
“Any process to incorporate federal land in Maine must have strong support from the local community,” said Congressman Poliquin in a press release.
The draft legislation is aimed at preventing President Obama from designating a "North Woods National Monument" if Congress won't endorse a national park on the land owned by Burts Bee founder Roxanne Quimby. Just two hours from coastal Acadia National Park, the proposed park abuts Baxter State Park and has spectacular views of Mount Katahdin, the northern terminus of the Appalachian National Scenic Trail.
Ms. Quimby is prepared to donate 75,000 acres along the East Branch of the Penobscot River for the park, and another 75,000 acres for a national recreation area along its west bank.
Last month U.S. Sens. Susan Collins and Angus King, along with Rep. Poliquin, sent a letter (attached) to President Obama in which they raised "serious concerns" about the president using his authority under the Antiquities Act to designate the land in question a national monument.
"Mainers have a long and proud history of private land ownership, independence, and local control, and do not take lightly any forced action by the federal government to increase its footprint in our state," the letter read.
Ironically, while Rep. Poliquin said he was driven to introduce the legislation because he believed there must be "strong local support" in favor of a national monument or park, a survey of his congressional district's voters showed 67 percent were in favor of a national park as was being proposed.
Comments
Well Kurt, that makes perfect sense to me. If the legitimate process is for the state's delegation to make the introduction and Congress to then approve, we shouldn't have the President doing an end run around the process.
I thought that Obama reference would have been over your head.
No it would ban a proclaimation without state support.
Oops I was wrong. Obama said 57 states. He was even more off than I thought.
So it went over YOUR head instead.
Nothing new there.
But are you afraid the Federal government is trying to claim a state or something? Your comment about the proCLAIMation is a bit incoherent, isn't it? Or are you into some sort of new conspiracy theory?
Yep, Obama's citation of 57 states went over my head. I am sure you understood.
Nope, never said or implied that. More baseless accusations. But I am sure you will run as usual rather than try to back them up.
I did. It struck me as odd that you might be trying to call out the president on his count of states with an erroroneous count of your own. But, as I said, that's nothing new.
Wait, you're the one who mentioned proCLAIMations. So you either need to support that claim or admit you were wrong again and that you have been making baseless accusations.
Claiming you never said it is incoherent isn't it? Or is it just dishonest? C'mon, back up that claim that you never said what you said.
Not when I never said it. More of your baseless accusations. Show where I said the feds wanted to claim a state? I will expect you to run as usually since it never happened.
New catchphrase repeated over and over - "baseless accusations".
Adds nothing to a discussion, but maintains your teflon state of never being wrong.
Sheesh.