SALT LAKE CITY — A Utah senator who has been hammering on the Obama administration this week over a possible monument designation in San Juan County met with President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday in New York City.

Initiated Tuesday by Trump, the meeting forced Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, to cancel his planned appearance with other members of the state's congressional delegation at Gov. Gary Herbert's monthly news conference on KUED.

Lee spokesman Conn Carroll said the agenda was not immediately disclosed, but he later issued a statement saying the two met for 30 minutes and discussed the U.S. Supreme Court, repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act and the REINS Act, which requires an up or down vote by Congress on any regulation or rule with an annual economic impact of $100 million or more. Lee is the Senate's co-sponsor.

"Sen. Lee looks forward to working with the president-elect on all of these issues," Carroll said in a prepared statement.

Lee and Utah's other top political leaders — beyond the pressure they're putting on the Obama administration — have threatened to undo any Bears Ears monument that may be forthcoming and are pushing Trump to keep the U.S. Department of the Interior's hands off any more land in Utah.

On Thursday, fearing a probable move by the president, Utah's congressional delegation again implored President Barack Obama to refrain from action, which could take place as early as next week.

"With this extremely controversial decision allegedly pending, we write to again strongly and unequivocally ask that you not designate Bears Ears as a national monument," the delegation said in a letter to Mr. Obama.

"Doing so will not only deprive local Indian tribes of use of land they have valued and rights they have enjoyed, but it will also ensure that we will be unable to work toward a common-sense Congressional solution that will allow for co-management with affected tribes," the letter continued.

The delegation also wrote to Russell Begaye, president of the Navajo Nation.

"With the long and sordid history of the federal government's treatment of tribal obligations, it would be the height of irresponsibility to designate a national monument based on misrepresentations," the letter said.

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In Salt Lake City at Herbert's media event, Rep. Jason Chaffetz said all dialogue in Washington, D.C., over a monument designation has grown eerily quiet.

"It's gone pretty close to radio silent, which does scare us these days," Chaffetz said, adding that repeated requests to the Interior Department for input on how to strengthen tribal involvement over Bears Ears in a public lands bill have been ignored.

Both Chaffetz and Rep. Rob Bishop said the Obama administration cannot deliver on promises to Native American tribes on how a monument designation can ensure continued access and an elevated status for co-management.

"They are flat-out lying if they have told them they will get co-management under a unilateral designation of a national monument," Chaffetz said.

The Bears Ears Inter-Tribal Coalition, made up of five Native American tribes with ancestral ties to the area, has repeatedly pressed the Obama administration to designate 1.9 million acres in southeast Utah as a national monument.

Marked by rugged canyons and home to thousands of examples of rock art and other cultural resources, the vast area is also rich in mineral resources such as potash and uranium, and potential oil and gas resources.

The majority of the land is in the ownership of the Bureau of Land Management — and that would not change under a monument designation — but the tribes seek more say in how the land is managed, beyond the federal government's current obligation.

Native American tribes behind the monument push have received an array of support from multiple environmental and conservation organizations, but critics — including Bishop and Chaffetz — assert that the monument movement has been co-opted by groups with their own agendas.

The delegation and Herbert want the Obama administration to let the Public Lands Initiative play out in Congress, where members can fine-tune the massive bill.

"If we want additional protections, there is a better way to do it. That is legislatively," Herbert said.

But with Congress adjourned for the year and with Obama's time in office waning, the inter-tribal coalition — joined by supporters — said the time for Congress to act has passed.

"Utah’s elected officials had years to act to protect Bears Ears. Yet, instead of attempting serious legislation, they stalled and blocked any real attempts at legislative progress," the coalition said in a prepared statement.

"The Bears Ears region is the most important unprotected cultural landscape in the nation. It contains tens of thousands of Native American and archeological sites. The region faces an urgent need for conservation," the statement continued.

The Public Lands Initiative, which covers 18 million acres of federal lands in seven Utah counties, includes two national conservation areas in the Bears Ears region to protect one portion for its cultural resources and another segment for highly popular recreational activities such as rock climbing.

Critics say those protections do not go far enough, and the bill in general is a giveaway to industry and grazing interests.

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