GOP lawmakers, the Trump administration and Democrats were sharply divided over public land use and a Nevada standoff between federal law enforcement and a militia led by Cliven Bundy before he was freed from jail. Now those positions have hardened and the battle is moving to Congress.
The Gold Butte National Monument will be off the table when federal land managers host an upcoming series of public meetings on their revised management plan for Southern Nevada.
In a letter Thursday, U.S. Sen. Dean Heller called on the president to “abandon any plans to unilaterally designate” new national monuments in the Gold Butte area of northeastern Clark County and in the Owyhee Canyonlands of southeastern Oregon, near the Nevada border.
