A mere two weeks after public land advocates successfully blocked a measure that would have sold over 500,000 acres of federal public land, a U.S. senator has vowed to return the provision to the budget reconciliation bill.
Utah Senator Mike Lee told Politico’s E&E News yesterday that he wants to see public land sales back in President Trump’s “one, big, beautiful budget bill.”
When asked by reporters whether he intended to bring back public lands provisions that were cut from the House package, he responded, simply, “yes.”
MeatEater reached out to Montana senator Steve Daines for a response to his Republican colleague’s comment. Daines voiced opposition to public land sales when the bill was in the House, and he reiterated that opposition in brief emailed statement.
“Senator Daines has always and will always oppose the sale of public lands,” Gabby Wiggins, a Daines spokesperson, said via email.
Montana’s other senator, newly-elected Sen. Tim Sheehy, added that “there’s no question that public lands belong in public hands.”
“That’s not just a slogan, it’s a way of life and one thing most Montanans agree on regardless of party. I will always fight to protect our right to hunt, fish, and recreate on our public lands,” Sheehy continued.
Ryan Callaghan, MeatEater’s Director of Conservation, isn’t surprised by Sen. Lee’s position but hopes he can be convinced to change course.
“Senator Lee has always been consistent on public land disposal, so this isn’t a surprise. However, Lee’s colleagues, like Sens. Daines and Sheehy, will hopefully have enough sway to prevent the inclusion of this provision,” he said. “And let’s not forget that the House still has to sign off on any additions made in the Senate. House leadership made their position on this issue clear, so if the Senate is hoping to meet their strict Independence Day deadline, it would be in their best interest to take public land sales off the table.”
It is unclear right now how much public land Sen. Lee plans to put on the chopping block. At a House Natural Resources Committee meeting late last month, Reps. Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah added an amendment that would require the disposition of land in their states.
The amendment was written in such a way that it took several weeks to work out exactly how much land would be up for sale. Eventually, onX Maps determined that it would incorporate 539,526 acres in Utah and Nevada.
The outcry from public land advocates was significant, and at the last minute, House leadership, led by Montana Rep. Ryan Zinke, pulled public land sales from their version of the budget reconciliation package.
Sen. Lee’s statement to E&E News suggests he aims to reinsert the same language that was struck from the House bill. But he might also go in a different direction in light of opposition from hunters, anglers, and conservationists, many of whom are his constituents. We won’t know for sure until the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Sen. Lee serves as chairman, takes up the language.
About 63% of Utah is comprised of federal public land, a fact Sen. Lee frequently cites as reason to sell it to the state government and private entities. He has proposed legislation to make it easier to sell and develop federal land, and he filed an amicus brief in support of a Utah state lawsuit that would compel the BLM to sell millions of acres.
Public land advocates are hoping the playbook that killed the last public land sale provision will earn them a victory in round 2. They are calling on their supporters to call and email their U.S. senators, which can be done here via the Backcountry Hunters and Anglers Action Center.
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