Simpson Asks Obama to Wait on National Monument

BOISE, Idaho (AP) – Republican Congressman Mike Simpson of Idaho is asking President Barack Obama to hold off designating a rugged swath of central Idaho as a national monument.

Simpson tells the Idaho Statesman that he’s asked the president for six to eight months to give him time to work on passing legislation.

Simpson’s Central Idaho Economic Development and Recreation Act, or CIEDRA, would create three wilderness areas totaling 332,775 acres while also releasing 130,000 acres from a wilderness study area to a multiple-use designation.

But that plan for years has failed to get through Congress.

So some groups are asking Obama to use his executive power under the Antiquities Act to create a 592,000-acre national monument that includes the rugged Boulder and White Cloud mountains.