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LAYTON — U.S. Rep. Rob Bishop decried the 1.3 million acres swept into Bears Ears National Monument, defended Republicans' unsuccessful push to repeal the Affordable Care Act and denounced white supremacy Friday in front of a divided house 25 miles north of Salt Lake City.
The evening town hall — the Utah Republican's third of the week — was punctuated with applause and whistles when Bishop said Utah could better manage its public lands and when a constituent asked what he'd do to alleviate partisan gridlock in Congress.
But he was met with cries of "that's not a fact!" and "answer the question" on health care and his opposition to Utah's vast national monuments from the audience of about 250 in the gym auditorium at Layton Christian Academy.
Bishop said past presidents overstepped their authority granted in a century-old law with the designation of Bears Ears National Monument in December and Grand Stair Case-Escalante National Monument in 1996.
"Most of what’s in the Bears Ears has nothing to do with Bears Ears," he said, adding he thinks the monument should be 100,000 to 200,000 acres, right around the size Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke is rumored to have proposed Thursday in a memo to President Donald Trump.
Bishop said he believes Congress should pass legislation that grants tribal governments a vote in managing the monument and a law that stipulates the kinds of "traditional activities," such as wood-gathering and ceremonies, allowed in the monument.
Prior to the designation, Bishop was an architect of an unsuccessful compromise plan to protect some areas and keep access open for recreation, grazing and other uses, including energy development.
On health care, Bishop said "the system is broken, it's failing," and said the U.S. Senate's failure to pass a repeal bill unnerved him.
"I think on the House side we do our work, but I get frustrated on the Senate side," he said. "I can’t control them."
Marilee Rohan of Ogden sought to press him on that issue.
"Please explain why you continue to support President Trump," she said.
Bishop said he's received messages from constituents across his district asking for Congress to impeach Trump, a move he said isn't viable because it doesn't have the support needed for a two-thirds vote in Congress.
"The new president would become Michael Pence," he said, "and that’s the same deal."
Rohan wasn't satisfied.
She said after the meeting Utahns would suffer under repeal of Obamacare without a replacement, and she wanted to hear why he supported such a move.
"I just wish he would answer my question," said the nurse practitioner from Ogden. "I thought he was rude. He was walking away."
Touching on the white nationalist rally in Charlottesville, Virginia, where a car plowed into protesters and killed a woman, he said "white supremacy to me is abhorrent. It is bigotry and it is wrong."
But he added that left-leaning protesters also were violent, noting some of them "came with clubs."
Bishop sidestepped answers on whether he supports net neutrality, building a Mexico border wall and Trump's suggestion he would pardon Joe Arpaio, the former Arizona sheriff who flouted a judge's orders to halt anti-immigrant policies. Trump did issue the pardon Friday evening.
"The issue is not the wall. The issue is border security," he said, adding that federal red tape prevents Border Patrol agents from enforcing existing immigration law.
The Friday town hall in Layton follows an open meeting Thursday in Brigham City and a radio town hall on Wednesday.
On Friday, Bishop pledged not to run for more than one more term, suggesting he would return to the Beehive State to teach.
In response to a question about big business donating to his campaigns, he said the corporate money doesn't sway his votes.
"I will take contributions from anybody. I’ll take contributions from abortion groups," but wouldn't vote in their interest, he said.
Several in the audience applauded when he said the Environmental Protection Agency has overstepped its authority in setting pollution limits in Utah and when he said the federal government should no longer provide funding to Planned Parenthood.
The tension broke when one woman suggested he and his colleagues create a committee to study wage equality for women and people of color.
"It’s actually not a bad idea," he said, urging the constituent to send him more ideas on a possible task force. "I’d be more than happy to look at that."
Bishop's sweeping district covers a broad swath of northern Utah, from Box Elder County on the Nevada side to Uintah County to the east. Email: aknox@deseretnews.com
