A provision in the GOP budget bill that would have authorized the sale of millions of acres of public land has been stripped from the legislation, according to news reports yesterday.
Republican representatives Mark Amodei, of Nevada, and Celesta Maloy, of Utah, introduced a provision in the GOP budget bill in Congress that would have authorized the sale of over 1.5 million acres of federal land throughout their states.
Both representatives claimed they wanted the land sold to help offset the cost of the new GOP budget (which includes signature legislation for president Donald Trump), as well as open lands in their state for real estate and energy development.
Conservation groups, hunters, and anglers were quick to voice their opposition, as were other members of Congress. Notably, Montana representative Ryan Zinke, a Republican, and the former Interior Secretary during Trump’s first term, spearheaded and effort to oppose any public land sales. He also co-founded the Public Lands Caucus, which is a bipartisan group of lawmakers dedicated to conserving public access to public land.
According to the Nevada Independent, Zinke worked in public and private to oppose the land sale provision. He’s quoted as saying the public lands sale was his “red line” and his own “San Juan Hill.”
Zinke escalated the issue all the way to House leadership, where it’s reported that House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) mediated a meeting between Zinke and Amodei to pull the proposed sale from the final bill.
The Senate could revive the sale provision when that chamber takes its turn to mark up the legislation, so the issue may not be fully dead. But it would need to pass both houses of Congress to become law.