House Public Lands and Environmental Regulation Subcommittee Chairman Rob Bishop (R-UT) sponsored H.R. 1459, the Ensuring Public Involvement in the Creation of National Monuments Act, which would gut America’s most important conservation tool, the Antiquities Act. The bill would undermine the President’s authority under the Antiquities Act to protect historical, cultural, and natural sites by designating them as National Monuments, and would therefore serve as the biggest rollback of our nation’s ability to conserve land in more than a century. With Congress refusing to advance dozens of locally-supported bills--from members of both parties--that would create new national parks and other conservation areas, a vote for H.R. 1459 amounts to a vote in favor of preventing new parks from being created. On March 26, the House approved H.R. 1459 by a vote of 222-201 (House roll call vote 147). NO IS THE PRO-ENVIRONMENT VOTE. The Senate took no action on this legislation.