Biden strongly considering designating new national monument around Grand Canyon

President Joe Biden is strongly considering declaring a vast area around the Grand Canyon as the nation's newest national monument, according to two sources familiar with the plans.

Biden will visit Arizona next week as part of a swing through that state, New Mexico and Utah. The president is expected to talk during the trip about his administration's response to climate change and investments in clean energy as part of the Inflation Reduction Act.

"No decisions have been made," White House spokesperson Abdullah Hasan said in a statement, commenting on the potential designation. "But I can tell you that President Biden has conserved more land and water in his first year than any president since JFK, and his climate protection record is unmatched."

The Washington Post first reported on the consideration.

Tribes are asking the White House to protect about 1.1 million acres of additional state and federal lands that surround the Grand Canyon by designating it as the new Baaj Nwaavjo I'tah Kukveni Grand Canyon National Monument. The designation would protect the area from potential uranium mining.

"There are some places in the world, and the Grand Canyon's one of them, that deserve to be protected," Rep. Raúl Grijalva, the Democratic ranking member on the House Committee on Natural Resources, told CNN. "I hope that's where the president is leaning."

As a 2012 Obama-era ban on new uranium mining in the area is set to soon expire, tribes are concerned about how future mining might affect clean water and disrupt sacred lands. It's not the first time tribes have asked the federal government to protect the area.