Utah Republican Senator Mike Lee officially announced that he withdrew his public land sale bill from the current budget working through Congress.
The “One Big Beautiful Bill” that Congress wants to deliver to President Donald Trump by July 4th is a budget package, but as we’re accustomed to seeing, a lot of other non-budgetary items have made their way in. Selling public lands to open up housing opportunities in the West and decrease the federal government’s ownership portfolio were the main reasons Lee claimed for introducing his bill into the budget. However, Lee inserted his provision just weeks after a similar (and much smaller-scale) proposal was made in the House of Representatives. That proposal was nixed by all House Democrats and a few Republicans, led by Ryan Zinke of Montana.
Lee’s reason for pulling the public lands bill from this current budget is layered. Since Lee wanted to include this in a budget proposal that’s going through reconciliation, anything included in the proposal has to be directly related to fiscal matters. This allows the Senate to pass legislation with a simple majority—51 votes in the affirmative—instead of the usual 60-vote threshold required in the upper chamber.
The Senate parliamentarian (who is essentially the referee of the Senate and ensures that the body follows its own lawmaking rules) ruled Lee’s original proposal to sell up to 3 million acres of land couldn’t go into the Big Beautiful Bill because it wasn’t budget-related. Lee vowed to rework the bill, introducing one version that would sell off roughly 1 million acres instead.
What’s not clear is if that new version was also nixed by the parliamentarian, if Lee felt the political pressure, or if his official explanation is the actual reason behind public land sales being pulled altogether. But one thing is for certain: the political pressure hunters and anglers put on this proposal was heard!
Lee’s official explanation was that he couldn’t obtain “safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families,” cutting out corporations or foreign governments.
Regardless, it’s a win for anyone in America who enjoys public land. Lee will likely try this again, as selling public lands has been a pet project of his for over a decade.
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