{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-lujan-durbin-lead-colleagues-in-opposing-trumps-move-to-strip-protections-from-bears-ears-and-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monuments", "Heinrich, Luj\u00e1n, Durbin Lead Colleagues in Opposing Trump\u2019s Move to Strip Protections From Bears Ears & Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments", "2026-08-10", "2026", "2026-08", "Democrat", "Senate", "NM", "Martin Heinrich", "H001046", "www.heinrich.senate.gov", "heinrich", "https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases", "scraper", "WASHINGTON \u2013 U.S. Senators Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.), Ranking Member of the U.S. Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Ben Ray Luj\u00e1n (D-N.M.), and Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) led 34 Senators in a letter to President Trump expressing strong opposition to his executive order reducing the boundaries and stripping protections from the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments in southern Utah. In the letter, the senators highlight how the executive order places irreplaceable cultural, historic, scientific, ecological, and recreational resources at risk of destruction and loss.\n\n\u201cBy attempting, yet again, to eliminate vast portions of these monuments, your Administration invites needless uncertainty to the stability that local communities, Tribes, land managers, scientists, recreation users, and businesses need. Not just in Utah, but for all local communities that rely on the stability of our national monuments,\u201d the Senators wrote.\n\n\u201cThe Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments are national treasures. The American people deserve public lands policy grounded in law, science, respect for Tribal sovereignty, and stewardship\u2014not political decisions against the desires of the vast majority of Americans,\u201d the Senators concluded.\n\nIn addition to Heinrich, Luj\u00e1n, and Durbin, the letter was signed by Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and U.S. Senators Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.), Maria Cantwell (D-Wash.), Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Michael Bennet (D-Colo.), Ed Markey (D-Mass.), Angela Alsobrooks (D-Md.), Chris Coons (D-Del.), Tammy Duckworth (D-Ill.), Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), Tina Smith (D-Minn.), Richard Blumenthal (D-Conn.), Brian Schatz (D- Hawai\u2018i), Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), Patty Murray (D-Wash.), Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), Andy Kim (D-N.J.), Kirsten Gillibrand (D-N.Y.), Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), Cory Booker (D-N.J.), Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.), Tammy Baldwin (D-Wis.), John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.), Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-Del.), Jacky Rosen (D-Nev.), Peter Welch (D-Vt.), Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.), Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.), Gary Peters (D-Mich.), and Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.).\n\nHeinrich is a leader in public lands protections and a staunch supporter of protecting and expanding Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante Monuments.\n\nIn July 2026, Heinrich spoke out against the Trump administration\u2019s renewed efforts to strip protections from Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, describing it as a \u201cWar on the West\u201d and criticizing the removal of protections for the monuments.\n\nIn 2021, Heinrich led Senate Democrats in urging Department of the Interior (DOI) Secretary Deb Haaland and the Biden administration to restore Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, reversing the Trump administration\u2019s reductions. This move was ultimately successful, and President Biden restored both monuments.\n\nIn 2019, Heinrich spoke out against the Trump administration\u2019s final Bears Ears management plan, arguing DOI should not weaken protections while the legality of Trump\u2019s reductions remained in courts.\n\nIn 2018, Heinrich continued pushing back against the Trump administration\u2019s monument reductions, joining multiple letters urging the Interior to pause new management plans, preserve existing protections, and consult Tribal nations before imposing sweeping changes.\n\nHeinrich co-sponsored the ANTIQUITIES Act in 2018 to reaffirm that only Congress has the authority to reduce or revoke a national monument designation.\n\nFollowing President Trump\u2019s 2017 decision to shrink the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante, Heinrich condemned the action for its attack on sacred lands and Tribal sovereignty, along with the precedent it sets for public lands across the country.\n\nIn 2016, Heinrich praised President Obama\u2019s designation of Bears National Monument, recognizing the years-long effort and co-management framework of Tribal nations to protect the landscape.\n\nRead the full text of the letter here and below.\n\nDear Mr. President:\n\nWe write to express our strong opposition to your July 13, 2026, proclamations that stripped protections for Bears Ears National Monument and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument in southern Utah. These actions attempt to remove nearly three million acres from monument protection and placed irreplaceable cultural, historic, scientific, ecological, and recreational resources at risk of destruction and loss.\n\nNational monuments have preserved our country\u2019s unique public lands, extraordinary history, and common culture for 120 years. Grand Staircase-Escalante, established in 1996, contains world-class paleontological resources, the ancestral and current homelands of multiple Tribal Nations, striking geologic formations, unique plants and animals, stunning dark night skies, and landscapes that support robust local outdoor recreation economies. Bears Ears, established in 2016, is America's first truly tribally-driven national monument. The proposal was led by five sovereign Tribal Nations.\n\nEach monument is a living cultural landscape with deep spiritual and ancestral importance to multiple Tribal Nations, including the Hopi Tribe, Navajo Nation, Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, Pueblo of Zuni, and Ute Indian Tribe and the Kaibab Band of Paiute Indians. These places are not abstractions on a map; they are homelands and sacred sites that deserve enduring protection, and enhanced recognition secured by the previous monument declaration.\n\nWe are especially troubled that the Bears Ears proclamation disbanded the Bears Ears Commission, a landmark model of collaborative management between sovereign Tribal Nations and the federal government. Tribal leaders have made clear that Bears Ears is a sacred ancestral homeland, and that decisions affecting it must be made through meaningful government-to government consultation. The Department of the Interior had previously committed to meeting with the Bears Ears Commission if changes to the monument were under consideration; no such meeting occurred before these proclamations were signed. Any major policy action regarding these culturally important places requires meaningful government-to-government consultation.\n\nNational monuments enjoy widespread public support and serve as economic drivers across the United States. The outdoor recreation economy generates $1.3 trillion in gross output and accounts for $9.75 billion in Utah alone. The localities surrounding national monuments have seen growth in income and employment since their designations. We reject the premise that monuments are incompatible with rural prosperity or responsible public access. Despite your false claims that people cannot walk, hunt or fish in these monuments, monument designations support outdoor recreation, heritage tourism, hunting and fishing, scientific research, grazing under appropriate management, and durable local economies. At the same time, monument status prevents the loss of cultural and natural resources that cannot be replaced once damaged. By attempting, yet again, to eliminate vast portions of these monuments, your Administration invites needless uncertainty to the stability that local communities, Tribes, land managers, scientists, recreation users, and businesses need. Not just in Utah, but for all local communities that rely on the stability of our national monuments.\n\nThe Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments are national treasures. The American people deserve public lands policy grounded in law, science, respect for Tribal sovereignty, and stewardship\u2014not political decisions against the desires of the vast majority of Americans. We stand with Tribal Nations, local communities, scientists, conservationists, outdoor recreation businesses, and Americans across the country who believe these landscapes should remain protected.\n\n###", 1, "2026-08-11T05:54:29Z", "2026-08-11T05:56:25Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.heinrich.senate.gov/newsroom/press-releases/heinrich-lujan-durbin-lead-colleagues-in-opposing-trumps-move-to-strip-protections-from-bears-ears-and-grand-staircase-escalante-national-monuments"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.0071691144257784, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}