Establishing a national monument in the Owyhee Canyonlands in southeastern Oregon would be more difficult under an amendment Rep. Cliff Bentz included in an appropriations bill.

The House of Representatives Nov. 3 voted 213 to 203 to pass House Resolution 4821 — the Department of the Interior, Environment and Related Agencies Appropriations Act. The amendment, by Bentz, R-Ore., prohibits the use of funds approved in HR 4821 to establish any national monument in Malheur County.

The U.S. Senate still must weigh in on the bill.

“We don’t want a 2.5 million-acre monument promoted by Portland-based environmental groups making decisions for land they have never seen and frankly, only care about in the abstract,” Bentz said in a news release. “We must have a land management process that is based on the people who live, work, appreciate and recreate in Malheur County.”

The U.S. Bureau of Land Management “already controls 67% of our county,” he said. Monument designation would be “damaging to the land and communities in Malheur” and “undermine the hard work that our local groups have been doing.”

A 2015 proposal to establish a monument for 2.5 million acres prompted stakeholder groups and community leaders in the county to work with Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley, both D-Ore., to develop legislation as an alternative.

Senate Bill 1890 would protect 1.1 million acres as wilderness and allow for local decision making, among other features.

A new monument campaign began in September. Proponents cited Congress not advancing current or previous bills, and more usage as the population grows in neighboring southwest Idaho.

With SB 1890 pending, “there is no reason for a national monument designation,” Bentz said on the House floor. The bill and existing federal protections “are designed to protect this important area.”

The Oregon Natural Desert Association supports SB 1890 as well as a national monument designation that matches it as closely as possible if Congress does not act on the legislation, executive director Ryan Houston said. “We are trying to pursue two paths that achieve the same outcome.”

As for the Owyhee Basin Stewardship Coalition, which includes ranchers, “OBSC and basically Malheur County do not support a monument, and our efforts for the past few years have been trying to draft a legislative solution so a monument would not happen,” coalition representative Mark Dunn said.

The coalition supports Bentz’s amendment and was “pleased that he talked about the bill, and the fact that he supports a locally based solution,” he said.

A monument “cannot include all the items that deal with land health that (SB) 1890 does, such as the CEO group,” Dunn said. The Community Empowerment for the Owyhee group would receive money for land projects if the bill passes.

He expects the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, which held a hearing July 12, to mark up the bill before the end of the year. A mark-up, which can include amendments, precedes a committee vote.

The Biden administration opposes House passage of HR 4821, according to an Oct. 30 memo from the Office of Management and Budget.

“It’s more important than ever to focus on achievable and locally driven solutions,” Wyden spokesman Hank Stern told Capital Press. “Sen. Wyden remains confident the legislation he wrote in concert with eastern Oregon ranchers, conservationists and tribes meets that standard and will pass in this Congress.”