Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid said today he will renew his efforts to designate hundreds of thousands of acres of scenic Nevada desert surrounding Cliven Bundy's ranch as a national monument. Reid has previously pushed legislation to designate a 350,000-acre Gold Butte National Conservation Area as well as 220,000 acres of wilderness protections within it.
"Because of this legislation [Antiquities Act] and now the fact that the Bundys are all in jail, I'm going to reach out to the White House, and I guarantee we'll get it done," Reid said in a speech this morning on the Senate floor. "That's for sure, to see if President Obama will protect this area."
Reid's office later issued a press release.
Because of trouble caused by the Bundys and their pals, the federal employees tasked with safely guarding these antiquities were prevented from doing their jobs. These employees have been under constant physical and mental threat for doing what the American people have tasked them to do.
I’ve tried to protect Gold Butte for a long time. And the reason we haven’t been able to do anything to this point is that the Bundy boys and his pals. [...] We’ll see if President Obama will protect this area. He has the authority, as any president does, to stop this sort of destruction and stop it now. [...]
Unfortunately, many Senate Republicans want to undermine the Antiquities Act. They refuse to defend our cultural and historic antiquities that are being systematically destroyed. But that is why the Antiquities Act was created – to safeguard against these threats in the absence of Congressional action.
In his initial legislation proposing the new national monument, Reid noted the geological, historical, and cultural significance of the area in Clark County, Nevada.
Gold Butte is Nevada’s piece of the Grand Canyon. It is home to an amazing array of ancient Native American petroglyphs, historic mine sites, wild sandstone formations and critical wildlife habitat.