July 18, 2016 — The U.S. House passed legislation Thursday that would block federal funding for new national monuments, including one in Maine, though the president has threatened to veto the measure.
The House of Representatives voted 231-196 to pass a $32 billion Department of the Interior spending bill for the next fiscal year that bars funding for potential monuments in 47 counties within eight states, including Penobscot County.
No money from the budget “may be used to make a Presidential declaration by public proclamation of a national monument,” according to HR 5538.
President Barack Obama is said to be considering signing an executive order that would create a monument of about 87,500 acres east of Baxter State Park owned by the family of Burt’s Bees entrepreneur Roxanne Quimby. Quimby and her son, Lucas St. Clair, have campaigned to donate the land as a national park since 2011. The campaign’s focus shifted to creating a monument in November, when it became clear that Maine’s federal delegates would not submit a bill seeking a park.
Maine’s two representatives split on the Interior budget bill. U.S. Rep. Chellie Pingree, a Democrat representing the southern district, voted against it. U.S. Rep. Bruce Poliquin, a Republican from the northern district where the monument is proposed and a vocal critic of the plan, voted for it.