Plans to sell more than 2 million acres of federal land have been removed from the Republican major tax and spending reduction bill after Senate Speaker Mike Lee determined that the proposal violated the Chamber of Commerce rules.
Lee, a Utah Republican, suggests selling western public land to states or other entities for use as a home or infrastructure. The plan will revive long-standing Western conservative ambitions to hand over the land to local control after a similar proposal failed in the House earlier this year.
The proposal received a mixed reception from the governor of the Western Province on Monday. Democrat New Mexico Governor Michel Lejean Grisham was called a problem in her state because her residents are closely associated with public lands.
Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, a Republican, has expressed his qualifying support.
“The part where the state has the opportunity to create a policy that makes sense can actually allow responsible growth in some areas of communities that are inland at this point,” he said at a press conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the Western Governors Association was meeting.
Lee said in a post on X on Monday night, he will continue to challenge.
“Home prices crush families and prevent young Americans from living where they grew up. We need to change that,” he wrote, adding that the revised plan would remove all U.S. Forest Service land from the potential for sale. He said sales of sites managed by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would be significantly reduced.
Environmental advocates celebrated the verdict late Monday by Sen. Elizabeth McDonough, but warned that Lee’s proposal is far from death.
“This is a victory for the American people who were loud and clear. Public land remains in the public hands for future generations today,” said Tracy Stone Manning of the Wilderness Association.
Carrie Bethennett Hauser, president and CEO of a public land nonprofit trust known as a procedural ruling in the Senate, “The critical victory in the fight to protect American public lands would have undermined the bipartisan work to protect, manage and expand access to places we all share.”
“But don’t make any mistakes. This threat is not over,” Hauser added. “Efforts to demolish public lands continue and we must remain vigilant as a proposal currently under consideration.
Senator McDonough ruled out many other Republican-led clauses Monday night, including the construction of mine roads in Alaska and the changes in speeds for granting oil and gas lease speeds on federal land.
Congressional rulings are advised, but they are rarely ignored. Lawmakers are using the budget adjustment process to bypass the Senate filibuster and pass President Donald Trump’s tax cut package on his July 4th self-study.
Lee’s plan revealed sharp differences of opinion between Republicans who support wholesale federal property and promote development and generate revenue, and other stubbornly opposed lawmakers.
Land in 11 Western states from Alaska to New Mexico is eligible for sale. There, after lawmakers opposed, Montana was carved from the proposal. In states like Utah and Nevada, governments manage the majority of land and protect against potential exploitation, but are hampering growth.
“It has proven that Washington cannot manage this land many times, and this bill puts it better at it,” Lee announced the plan.
Housing advocates warn that federal land is not universally suited to affordable housing. Some of the plots for sale in Utah and Nevada under the suggestion of the house were far from the developed areas.
New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, a ranking Democrat on the Energy Committee, said Lee’s plans would remove Americans from fishing, hunting and camping locations.
“I don’t think it’s clear that this will even lead to a considerable amount of housing,” Heinrich said earlier this month. “What I know is that people lose access to places they know and care about, and that drives our Western economy.”
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