GOP Senator Threatens to Sell Off Federal Lands

_WHAT’S HAPPENING_

Utah Senator Mike Lee (R) included a provision in the Big, Beautiful Bill that would have required the sale of millions of acres of federal public lands across 11 western states.

Though Lee’s proposal excluded national parks and certain wilderness areas, critics on both the left and right argue that much of the land up for sale overlaps with wildlife migration corridors and areas valued by hunters, anglers, and hikers.

Much of the opposition from both Democrats and Republicans views it as a threat to cherished public lands for the benefit of private interests.

_THE FACTS_

• Sen. Lee’s proposal would have required the sale of up to 3.2 million acres, equating to between 0.5 percent and 0.75 percent of all federal land.

• Lee wants to sell the land in order to reduce rising housing costs in Utah and other western states.

• The federal government owns over 50 percent of the land in Utah and over 80 percent in neighboring Nevada.

• The sales were estimated to bring in $5–10 billion over a decade.

• Four western Republican senators — Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy of Montana, and Jim Risch and Mike Crapo of Idaho — came out against the plan.

• The Wilderness Society — a conservation group — slammed the bill as a “betrayal of future generations.”

• Conservative environmentalist Benji Backer said he’d “never seen so many conservatives and liberals stand together” in opposition.

• The Senate Parliamentarian ruled the provision violated reconciliation rules, striking it from the bill

• Lee announced revisions, including removing Forest Service lands and cutting back Bureau of Land Management acreage.

• The new version also requires all sales to be within five miles of a population center and mandates that land sold be used for housing projects.

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