GOP New Mexico lawmaker wants to shrink national monument

SANTA FE, N.M. (AP) — Members of New Mexico's delegation to Capitol Hill are at odds over whether to reduce the size of the Organ Mountains-Desert Peaks National Monument under a review by the administration of President Donald Trump. At a congressional hearing, Republican U.S. Rep. Steve Pearce on Thursday urged the secretary of the interior to reduce the land area of the monument on the outskirts of Las Cruces to about one-tenth of its current size. Pearce submitted a list of 800 businesses and individuals who he says support scaling back the 775 square mile (2010 square kilometer) monument designated by President Barack Obama in 2014. New Mexico's four Democratic U.S. lawmakers are urging Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to leave intact both the Organ monument and the Rio Grande del Norte monument near Taos.