The Controversial Push To Sell Millions Of Acres Of Public Land

As Senate Republicans take a red pen to the massive tax and spending bill passed by the House last month, some GOP lawmakers are pushing to add a provision that would green-light the potential sale of 2.1 million to 3.2 million acres of public land across 11 Western states.

Land of opportunity: Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee is leading the charge, saying his sale proposal only frees up a tiny fraction of federal land and that the sales will help drive housing costs down. According to a draft of the provision obtained by Politico’s E&E News, the land will be required to be used for “the development of housing or to address associated infrastructure to support local housing needs.”

Conservationists, hunting groups, and politicians from both sides of the aisle have lined up to oppose the proposal:

• Several Republican senators oppose the plan, including Tim Sheehy and Steve Daines of Montana, and Idaho’s Jim Risch and Mike Crapo.
• The Senate Energy Committee’s ranking Democrat, Sen. Martin Heinrich, called the proposal a “sledgehammer to our national public lands,” and says it’s unclear whether it would even lead to substantial housing improvements.
• The Wilderness Society conservation group said in a statement that the sale would be a “betrayal of future generations,” and that it has a lot of room to maneuver around some of the housing guarantees, especially in the long term.

Big picture: If the proposal survives—and the Senate approves the larger “big, beautiful bill”—it goes back to the House for another vote. President Trump has made it clear he wants the bill on his desk by July 4.—BC