Washington — A day after President Bush signed legislation repealing Clinton-era workplace safety rules, lawmakers on Thursday discussed ways to negate some of the former president's other actions, including his attempt to fence off millions of acres of land.
A House Judiciary subcommittee, led by Rep. Bob Barr, R-Ga., opened a hearing into presidential executive orders and began questioning whether Clinton legally used his power to create 18 national monuments during his term.
"Former President Clinton's designation of millions of acres as so-called national monuments under the purported authority of the Antiquities Act raises a host of legal questions Congress has a responsibility to address," Barr said.
The GOP-controlled Congress and White House have moved quickly to negate several other Clinton actions, including Clinton's ergonomic regulations and placing abortion restrictions on U.S. overseas aid funding international family planning. Barr questioned why Bush had not moved to challenge even more of Clinton's executive orders.
"This administration has not acted as promptly as some people would have expected because they may well see there will be a time when they will use all of this centralized power in their own ways," Rep. Melvin Watt, D-N.C., said. "That's just an observation."
Western lawmakers have been complaining for years about Clinton's use of his executive authority to expand federal monuments. "I can't find one member who had a hand in the monuments," said Rep. James Hansen, R-Utah, chairman of the House Resources Committee. Meantime, a House Resources subcommittee took the first step to curb one of Clinton's monument designations, approving a bill to change part of Idaho's Craters of the Moon National Monument into a national preserve so hunters could continue using the land.
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