SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Senate President Wayne Niederhauser says President Donald Trump’s inauguration comments about transferring power back from Washington. D.C. and “giving it back to you, the people” were encouraging.
Niederhauser, a Sandy Republican, kicked off the opening day of Utah’s 2017 legislative session with a speech on the Senate floor in which he said Trump may bring more authority to states. Utah’s leaders, particularly Republicans, have long complained that they feel the federal government and former President Barack Obama’s White House overstepped their authority.
Niederhauser used his opening speech to also criticize Obama’s December declaration of the Bears Ears National Monument in Utah, citing it as an example of that overreach.
He says that whether someone agrees or disagrees with the public land designation, no one person should be able to make such a big decision.