On Wednesday, President Donald Trump signed an executive order at the Department of the Interior for a review of land protected under the Antiquities Act of 1906, which gives national monument designation to specific terrains. The goal is to determine whether the federal government should pass off existing land ownership to individual states. The act — signed into law by Theodore Roosevelt — enables the acting president to classify federal areas of land and water as national monuments to protect them from drilling, mining, and development. It essentially gives the president authority to preserve lands with historical, cultural, and ecological significance without having to seek Congress's approval.