The national monument was declared on September 18, 1996 at the height of the 1996 presidential election campaign by President Bill Clinton, and was controversial from the moment of creation.
The declaration ceremony was held at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, rather than in Utah.

Local officials such as Democratic U.S. Representative Bill Orton from Utah objected to the designation of the national monument, questioning whether the Antiquities Act allowed such vast amounts of land to be designated.
However, United States Supreme Court decisions have long established the president's discretion to protect land under the Antiquities Act, and several lawsuits filed in an effort to overturn the designation were dismissed by federal courts.
Monument designation also nixed the Andalex Coal Mine that was proposed for a remote location on the Kaiparowits Plateau.
Wilderness designation for the lands in the monument had long been sought by environmental groups; however, designation of the monument is not the same as wilderness designation, as activities such as motorized vehicle and mountain bike use are allowed.

There are contentious issues peculiar to the state of Utah.
Certain plots of land were assigned when Utah became a state (in 1896) as School and Institutional Trust Lands (SITLa, a Utah state agency), to be managed to produce funds for the state school system.
 These lands included scattered plots in the monument that could no longer be developed.
The SITLa plots within the monument were exchanged for federal lands elsewhere in Utah, plus equivalent mineral rights and $50 million cash by an act of Congress, the Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998, supported by Democrats and Republicans, and signed into law as Public Law 105-335 on October 31, 1998.

A more difficult problem is the resolution of United States Revised statute 2477 (R.S. 2477) road claims.
R.S. 2477  (Section 8 of the 1866 Mining Act) states: "The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted."
The statute was repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, but the repeal was subject to valid existing rights.

A process for resolving disputed claims has not been established, and in 1996, the 104th United States Congress passed a law which prohibited the R.S. 2477 (proposed resolution regulations) written by the Clinton Administration from taking effect without congressional approval.

The right to maintain and improve the many unpaved roads in the national monument is disputed, with county officials placing county road signs on the roads they claim and occasionally applying bulldozers to grade claimed roads, while the BLM tries to exert control over the same roads.
Litigation between the state and federal government over R.S. 2477 and road maintenance in the national monument is an ongoing issue.
The national monument was declared on September 18, 1996 at the height of the 1996 presidential election campaign by President Bill Clinton, and was controversial from the moment of creation. The declaration ceremony was held at Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona, rather than in Utah.
Local officials such as Democratic U.S. Representative Bill Orton from Utah objected to the designation of the national monument, questioning whether the Antiquities Act allowed such vast amounts of land to be designated. However, United States Supreme Court decisions have long established the president's discretion to protect land under the Antiquities Act, and several lawsuits filed in an effort to overturn the designation were dismissed by federal courts. Monument designation also nixed the Andalex Coal Mine that was proposed for a remote location on the Kaiparowits Plateau.Wilderness designation for the lands in the monument had long been sought by environmental groups; however, designation of the monument is not the same as wilderness designation, as activities such as motorized vehicle and mountain bike use are allowed.
There are contentious issues peculiar to the state of Utah. Certain plots of land were assigned when Utah became a state (in 1896) as School and Institutional Trust Lands (SITLa, a Utah state agency), to be managed to produce funds for the state school system.  These lands included scattered plots in the monument that could no longer be developed. The SITLa plots within the monument were exchanged for federal lands elsewhere in Utah, plus equivalent mineral rights and $50 million cash by an act of Congress, the Utah Schools and Lands Exchange Act of 1998, supported by Democrats and Republicans, and signed into law as Public Law 105-335 on October 31, 1998.
A more difficult problem is the resolution of United States Revised statute 2477 (R.S. 2477) road claims. R.S. 2477  (Section 8 of the 1866 Mining Act) states: "The right-of-way for the construction of highways over public lands, not reserved for public uses, is hereby granted." The statute was repealed by the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976, but the repeal was subject to valid existing rights.
A process for resolving disputed claims has not been established, and in 1996, the 104th United States Congress passed a law which prohibited the R.S. 2477 (proposed resolution regulations) written by the Clinton Administration from taking effect without congressional approval.
The right to maintain and improve the many unpaved roads in the national monument is disputed, with county officials placing county road signs on the roads they claim and occasionally applying bulldozers to grade claimed roads, while the BLM tries to exert control over the same roads. Litigation between the state and federal government over R.S. 2477 and road maintenance in the national monument is an ongoing issue.
Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument