Outdoor groups condemn Senate proposal to sell up to 3 million public acres across 11 western states

Outdoor organizations on Wednesday, June 11, rebuked a provision in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee’s reconciliation proposal that would mandate the sale of public land in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming under the pretense of providing more affordable housing. 

The proposal is led by Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, chairman of the committee. 

“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 said in a video announcement posted on Wednesday.

The proposal would apply to public lands managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service.

“Hunters and anglers have made it clear that reconciliation is not the appropriate vehicle for public land sales,” said Joel Pedersen, president and CEO of the Theodore Roosevelt Conservation Partnership in a release issued by the organization. “The Senate proposal sets an arbitrary acreage target and calls for the disposal of up to six times more land than was proposed in early versions of the House budget reconciliation bill. If passed, sportsmen and women would lose access to large tracts of public land.” 

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A provision in the House budget reconciliation bill would have authorized the sale of nearly 500,000 acres of public lands in Utah and Nevada. Conservation groups applauded the removal of that land sale amendment from the House bill in late May.

The Senate proposal would accelerate land disposals across a wider swath of western states and mandate that between 2-3 million federal public acres be sold. Late last week, 44 hunting, fishing, and conservation organizations sent a letter to Senate leadership urging them to keep public lands sales out of the reconciliation bill.

 “TRCP stands ready to work with lawmakers to address the needs of local communities to create affordable housing, but reconciliation is not the process for that kind of deliberative, transparent decision-making,” said Pedersen. “Once public lands are sold, they are gone for good. We urge the Senate to remove this provision from the bill.” 

Backcountry Hunters and Anglers also rebuked the proposal in the Senate on Wednesday.

“This isn’t about budget reconciliation or affordable housing. This is a fraudulent scheme to swindle American citizens out of our shared legacy,” said Patrick Berry, President and CEO for BHA. “Our public lands are not disposable assets and the gaslighting campaign claiming this is somehow a solution to a housing crisis is an insult to all of us.

“Our lands are the physical inheritance of generations of Americans who fought to keep public lands in public hands. We owe it to those who had the vision to create this irreplaceable American ideal—and to those who stand to benefit from our stewardship — to tell our elected officials: united we stand for public lands.”

BHA said that, similar to the House proposal, the Senate proposal sidesteps the Federal Land Transaction Facilitation Act (FLTFA). FLTFA was signed into law in 2000 for an initial period of 10 years and reauthorized in perpetuity in 2018. The law is designed to ensure that proceeds from public land sales are reinvested in conservation and public access. 

Beyond the mandate to sell off public acres, the proposed legislation also includes provisions BHA said it strongly opposes that would: 

• Reverse prior decisions preventing the construction of the private 211-mile Ambler Road through Alaska’s Brooks Range, threatening the Western Arctic Caribou Herd and one of North America’s great wildlife migrations; 

• Require new oil and gas leasing in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; 

• Eliminate reforms that curtailed speculative, noncompetitive leasing of public lands for oil and gas development. 

Those wanting to contact their elected officials can do so by utilizing BHA’s dedicated Action Center webpage.