Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT) is trying to breathe new life into his idea to sell off a bunch of public land in Utah and other locations across the West, which is making many MAGA folks very unhappy as it could impact millions of acres over a dozen states.
Those opposed to Lee’s idea, which has already failed in the House of Representatives once when it was proposed by Utah Rep. Maloy a month ago, say the money will fund tax cuts for rich folk rather than helping communities.
Yeah, I don’t know too many blue-collar, salt-of-the-earth Americans who would be pleased with this arrangement. Republicans are supposed to be the party of the average, hard working citizen, supplanting the Democrats after years of failed policies. Do they really want to lose all the progress they’ve made?
via St. Louis Tribune:
Lee, the chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, released draft legislation that could become part of President Donald Trump’s “One Big Beautiful Bill Act” on Wednesday evening. It proposes the mandatory sale of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land “for housing” in 11 Western states.
“We’re opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development and get Washington D.C. out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow,” Lee explained in a video announcement published on Wednesday night.
“Washington has proven, time and again, it can’t manage this land,” he added. “This bill puts it in better hands.”
If the legislation is included in the final reconciliation bill, Interior Secretary Doug Burgum and Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins must put millions of acres of BLM and Forest Service land up for sale. Federally protected land — including national parks, national monuments and national recreation areas — would not be eligible for sale under the proposal. Neither are lands with existing mining or grazing rights.
Travis Hammill, director of the nonprofit organization Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance in D.C., said the proposed legislation “stands in stark contrast with Americans’ deep and abiding love of public lands… [and] puts Utah’s red-rock country in the crosshairs of unchecked development.”
“In Utah and the West, public lands are the envy of the country – but Sen. Lee is willing to sacrifice the places where people recreate, where they hunt and fish, and where they make a living – to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy,” he further elaborated.
This isn’t the first time that Lee has proposed housing development set up on federal land. He previously introduced the Helping Open Underutilized Space to Ensure Shelter or HOUSES Act, which presented the same basic concept.
The legislation released Wednesday does not require the potential housing built on sold public land to be deemed affordable. When asked about rumors that Lee would propose selling off public lands during a monthly news conference yesterday, Utah Gov. Spencer Cox praised the potential move.
“We need those lands … using lands in and adjacent to our cities for affordable housing is going to be critical,” he answered. However, pushback from both sides of the aisle sunk Maloy’s proposal and it could do the same with Lee’s plans.
Maloy, whose district spans most of western Utah, and Nevada Rep. Mark Amodei proposed an amendment to the budget reconciliation bill last month that proposed selling about 11,500 acres of BLM land in Utah and nearly 500,000 in Nevada.
“The bill directs the Interior and Agriculture Secretaries to publish a list of public land tracts for sale within 60 days of it becoming law. The secretaries must consult with governors, local governments and tribes on public lands’ ‘suitability…for residential development,'” the article reported.
State and local governments will have the option of first refusal for the disposed public lands “for community development purposes.”
So where does the money go that is generated from the sale of the land? The U.S. Treasury. However, 5 percent will be given to the local government where the land is located in order to provide support for the housing development project. Another 5 percent will be allocated for maintenance on other Forest Service Land and BLM.
“The proposal from the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources also includes plans to expand gas, coal, geothermal and timber leasing on public lands,” the report concluded.
"*" indicates required fields
