Proposal from a Republican senator from Utah to sell millions of acres of public land across the West was scrapped

Decision made on GOP plan to sell 3M acres of public land

Republican senators, hunters took an unexpected stance

By Anabel Sosa

A contentious proposal from a Republican senator from Utah to sell millions of acres of public land across the West was scrapped from the “One Big, Beautiful Bill” Monday night, but the lawmaker has made a last-ditch attempt to rally support. 

Senate parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough ruled Monday that the plan from Sen. Mike Lee to impose a mandatory sale of up to 3 million acres of Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land, including large swaths of California, would not make it into the Republican-led megabill. 

Tracy Stone-Manning, president of the Wilderness Society and former director of the Bureau of Land Management under the Joe Biden administration, called the decision a “victory.”

“Public lands belong in public hands, for current and future generations alike,” she said in a statement. “We trust the next politician who wants to sell off public lands will remember that people from all corners of America will stand against the idea. Our public lands are not for sale.” 

The two Republican senators from Idaho came out against the proposal last week, signaling a divide within the party. Lee, who chairs the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, announced changes at the eleventh hour Monday evening in an attempt to put “farmers, ranchers, and recreational users” first, he said. Among those tweaks are removing all of the Forest Service land from being eligible for sale.

Lee also suggested the proposal would “significantly reduce” the total amount of Bureau of Land Management land that could be sold by narrowing it down to land that is within 5 miles of an existing population center. Lee began drafting changes to his proposal Sunday, giving credit to a conservative hunting organization for influencing his decision.

“Hunter Nation: You spoke, and I’m listening. I’ll be making changes in the coming days,” he wrote on X, addressing the conservative hunting nonprofit organization.

Lee spoke to right-wing media personality Charlie Kirk on his Rumble talk show Tuesday morning. He said there has been “alarmist rhetoric” around the public lands sale and that his proposal would make over 250 million acres of federal land eligible to be considered for private sale to make space for housing developments.

“You’re not getting condos in Yellowstone,” Lee told Kirk. But he did clarify that housing would be built on unused public lands and that the number of single-family homes “could potentially double” under his proposal. 

Lee told Kirk that national parks, such as Yosemite National Park and Grand Teton National Park, were never at risk of being sold.

Maps published by nonprofit groups the Wilderness Society and Outdoor Alliance revealed that land eligible for sale could include areas right at the perimeter of Yosemite and Grand Teton, among other beloved national parks.

Conservationists, hunters and lawmakers were also skeptical about the bill’s lack of specificity about which parts of those lands were eligible for sale and to whom they could be sold. The language of the bill states that “any interested party” could purchase the land, without limitations on who those buyers could be. Opponents also said there would be no assurance of a public process to allow residents to provide input. 

Keith Mark, the founder of Hunter Nation, told SFGATE in a phone call that he reached out to the senator on Sunday to express his disapproval on behalf of the nearly 16 million hunters in the U.S. who use public lands. Mark said he spoke with Lee again on Tuesday morning in his office in Washington, D.C., and urged him to accept the parliamentarian’s decision.

The two, according to Mark, discussed a public lands plan that could be proposed at a later date that can be both “pro-hunter” and “pro-conservation.” He said Lee “filled a couple of pages of notes” during that conversation.

“It’s an exciting time to be a hunter,” said Mark. “We’re sitting at the big-boy table.”

In order for Lee’s amended version to stay in the bill, it will require 60 yes votes in the Senate. It is unclear if Lee will have enough support to meet that requirement.