WASHINGTON – Colorado U.S. Rep. Scott Tipton on Thursday called for more local input into federal decisions to designate public lands as national monuments.

Tipton, R-Cortez, was responding to a bill approved by a congressional committee one day earlier that seeks to revise the Antiquities Act, which empowers the president to preserve federal lands.

“Unfortunately, more and more, we see the Antiquities Act used outside of its intended purpose, which has limited critical local input and meaningful conversations about the impact a national monument designation may have on the surrounding community,” Tipton said.

Tipton voted in favor of the National Monument Creation and Protection Act, which was approved by the House Natural Resources Committee. Approval by a vote of Congress is required before the bill becomes law by the president’s signature.

The bill would require consent of local governments before the president could preserve large swaths of federal land, such as by designating them as national monuments.

In Colorado, the most recently-designated monument is the Chimney Rock National Monument in the San Juan National Forest, near Durango. Former President Barack Obama designated the 4,726-acre site as a national monument in 2012.

It was chosen for its geological formations, its archaeological importance as a 1,000-year-old settlement and its environmental significance as a nesting ground for Peregrine falcons.

Tipton agreed the Chimney Rock site should be designated as a national monument. He disagreed that Obama should have decided independently to designate more than 550 million acres of national and marine monuments while he was president.

The designation under authority of the 1906 law makes the property off-limits for private development and use.

“When President Teddy Roosevelt used the Antiquities Act, he made 18 designations for a combined total of 1.5 million acres,” Tipton said. “All of these designations were in the spirit of the law. Fast forward to 2016, when we saw the Obama Administration use the Antiquities Act 37 times to designate 553.6 million acres of land and water.”

Industry leaders representing oil companies, forestry groups and ranchers have complained to Congress that broad use of the Antiquities Act interferes with their business enterprises.

The bill introduced by Rep. Rob Bishop, R-Utah, would limit the president to designating no more than 640 acres as national monuments. Larger tracts would require increasingly strict environmental review, local input as well as state and local approval.

President Donald Trump is reportedly considering a proposal from his advisors to shrink some national monuments to give oil and gas companies greater exploration rights.

Democrats and environmental groups oppose the bill, saying it would give away scarce natural resources to help corporations make profits.

“It’s a no new parks bill at the end of the day,” said Garrett Garner-Wells, director of the Denver-based environmental group Environment Colorado. “There’s robust public comment that goes into the creation of national monuments. This is disappointing and something I think opinion is against here in the state of Colorado.”

Scott Braden, wilderness and public lands advocate for the Grand Junction-based environmental group Conservation Colorado, said, “It would erode existing protections for national monuments. It’s a terrible idea.”

He added that he was “terribly disappointed” that House Natural Resources Committee members Tipton and Rep. Doug Lamborn, R-Colorado Springs, voted for it.