In the wake of mounting pressure from both colleagues in Congress and hunters and anglers, Senator Mike Lee announced this evening that he has removed his public land sale provision from the “one, big, beautiful budget bill.”
“Over the past several weeks, I’ve spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders, and stakeholders across the country. While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation—and in some cases, outright lies—about my bill, many people brought forward serious concerns,” Lee said on X.
“Because of the strict constraints of the budget reconciliation process, I was unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families—not China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests,” he continued. “For that reason, I’ve made the decision to withdraw the federal land sale provision from the bill.”
Whether Lee abandoned his proposal due to fears of foreign interests purchasing public land or some other reason, the public land sale provision faced a tough road to passage.
Four U.S. Senators—Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy of Montana and Mike Crapo and Jim Risch of Idaho—had come out against the bill. Since the Republicans hold a 53-47 majority in the Senate, that could have been enough to defeat the measure in the that chamber.
But even if it somehow passed the upper chamber, five House Republicans vowed to oppose “the sale of federal lands that Senator Mike Lee seeks.” GOP Reps. Ryan Zinke (Mont.), Mike Simpson (Idaho), Dan Newhouse (Wash.), Cliff Bentz (Ore.) and David Valadao (Calif.) all signed a letter voicing their strong opposition to any public land sale being included in the budget reconcilation process.
“If a provision to sell public lands is in the bill that reaches the House floor, we will be forced to vote no,” they said.
What’s more, hundreds of thousands of public land users from across the country called and emailed their senators asking them to oppose Lee’s proposal. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers recorded nearly 115,000 calls and emails against the measure, and virtually every hook and bullet group called on their supporters to do the same.
Lee says he’s not dissuaded from continuing to pursue his vision of a smaller federal estate.
“I continue to believe the federal government owns far too much land—land it is mismanaging and in many cases ruining for the next generation. Under Democratic presidents, massive swaths of the West are being locked away from the people who live there, with no meaningful resources,” he continued on X. “President Trump promised to put underutilized federal land to work for American families, and I look forward to helping him achieve that in a way that respects the legacy of our public lands and reflects the values of the people who use them most.”
Lee is reportedly one of three Republican holdouts threatening to tank the entire budget bill after Ron Johnson of Wisconsin, Rand Paul of Kentucky and Thom Tillis of North Carolina have all voted “No.”
One more no vote would have kept the bill from passing, and Lee claimed to have concerns about deficit reduction. As of 8:32pm MT, Lee has not yet voted in favor of the budget bill.
Lee’s plan took various forms over the last few weeks, but the initial proposal would have mandated the sale of between 2-3 million acres of federal public land over the next five years, the largest public land selloff in modern history. Subsequent versions would have mandated the sale of as many as 1.2 million acres, and but each version of the bill would have instituted a more streamlined process for disposing of federal lands. No matter how many acres Lee tried to sell, or where those acres were located, it was this new disposal process that concerned public land advocates the most.
This is a breaking story. Check back for more updates.
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