Just hours after the Senate parliamentarian shot down the first version of Utah Senator Mike Lee’s public land sale bill, Lee submitted a revised edition he hopes will be more amenable to public land advocates and his fellow senators.
But it still mandates the sale of hundreds of thousands–potentially millions–of acres of Bureau of Land Management property used by hunters, anglers, hikers, and campers in 11 western states. Analysis from Act Now for Public Land indicates that as many as 1.2 million acres would be sold within the next five years—making this (still) the largest public land sell-off in modern history.
“This is everybody’s fight. These are our public lands,” said MeatEater’s Ryan Callaghan. “There should be no public land sales in the budget bill. Not one acre.”
Lee vowed yesterday to exempt all Forest Service lands from potential disposal and limit BLM land to that within five miles of a population center. The new bill does do both of those things, but, critically, it fails to define “population center.” This could allow the disposal of BLM land both around major cities and small, rural communities.
These properties may not be deep in the backcountry, but they are still used frequently by public land recreators. They are often the trailheads, river access points, and biking trails visited after work or for a quick weekend getaway.
As Callaghan has said many times over the last few weeks, “When the front country goes away, what happens to the backcountry?”
The newest version of Lee’s bill also retains much of the same process that would expedite the sale of public land and make those sales immune to public scrutiny or environmental review. The federal government already has a more rigorous process to sell land under the Federal Land Policy and Management Act (FLPMA) of 1976. So, while the bill does reduce the number of acres eligible for disposal, it still creates an expedited procedure to sell public land that could be applied to a broader swath of acres in the future.
Lee’s new version does make one change to assuage the anger of public land recreators. The original iteration directed 5% of the gross revenue from each land sale to the deferred maintenance backlog at the BLM or Forest Service. But this bill directs 10% of each sale to “hunting, fishing, and recreational amenities” on BLM land as well as the deferred maintenance in the state where the sale took place.
The problem is, under the current process directed by the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act, 100% of revenue from BLM land sales is used to purchase other properties with “high conservation or recreation value.” In other words, BLM users are trading 100% of the land sale revenue and the prospect of adding new recreational acreage for, under Lee’s bill, 10% and some new bathrooms.
Of course, Lee’s bill has another problem: Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough. MacDonough is responsible for determining whether any portion of the “One Big Beautiful Bill”–the massive budget bill being pushed forward by Republicans–can be included in the reconciliation process. This is the process by which the Senate can avoid the filibuster and pass budgetary matters on a simple majority vote.
MacDonough determined earlier this week that the first version of Lee’s bill could not be included. Her reasoning was not made public, but Lee’s marginal changes likely won’t be enough to escape a second slapping down.
But nothing is ever a sure thing in the U.S. Congress, which is why public land advocates aren’t putting their hopes in the parliamentarian. Backcountry Hunters and Anglers have organized a “Flood the Lines” day for today, June 25th. They’re calling on all public land users to call the Senate today and demand that Lee’s provision be removed from the bill.
You can reach your senator by calling the Capitol switchboard at 202-224-3121.
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