Bennet Statement on Trump’s Executive Order Shrinking Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monument

Jul 14, 2026 | Press Releases

Washington, D.C. - Colorado U.S. Senator Michael Bennet released a statement following President Donald Trump's executive order to shrink Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments:

"Once again, the President has demonstrated his disregard for the wishes of Tribal coalitions, western leaders, and the American people by removing protections for two crown jewels of our public lands. The ancestral lands and cultural sites at Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears National Monuments are sacred to the Tribes of the Four Corners area - including the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes in Colorado. Today's actions are another broken promise to the Tribes who have lived in this region since time immemorial and to the next generation of Americans, who are relying on us to protect these irreplaceable landscapes. I will fight this effort every step of the way."

For a decade, Bennet has fought to protect the Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monuments and include Tribal voices in management decisions for these landscapes. In March 2026, Bennet condemned Congressional Republicans' effort to overturn the Bureau of Land Management's Resource Management Plan for Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. In October 2021, Bennet joined then-Chairman Manuel Heart of the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe, among other Tribal leaders, at the White House for former President Joe Biden's proclamation signing to restore Bears Ears National Monument. In July 2021, Bennet wrote to then-U.S. Secretary of the Interior Deb Haaland urging her to meet with the Ute Mountain Ute Tribe to hear directly about Tribal members' priorities and to support their request to restore the size of Bears Ears National Monument.

In January 2018, Bennet and other senators introduced the America's Natural Treasures of Immeasurable Quality Unite, Inspire, and Together Improve the Economies of States (ANTIQUITIES) Act of 2018 in response to the Trump Administration's unprecedented attacks on national monuments. The legislation reinforces that only Congress has the authority to reduce the size of a national monument. In December 2017, Bennet denounced Trump's decision to shrink Bears Ears. In 2016, Bennet applauded former President Obama's national monument proclamation for Bears Ears, which is home to ancestral lands and cultural sites that are sacred to the region, including to the Ute Mountain Ute and Southern Ute Indian Tribes of Colorado, both of whom strongly supported this designation.

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