Millions of acres of our public lands could be available for sale under the Senate’s version of the budget reconciliation bill.
There’s so much happening on the national political stage in America right now that it’d be easy to miss emerging and serious threats to the public’s ownership of our lands. But we’re watching and working to stop these threats from becoming reality, and we need your help.
On June 11, Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, released the Senate Energy and Natural Resources section of the budget reconciliation bill, calling for 2-3 million acres of “mandatory” public land sales within five years. Up to 120 million acres of our public lands could be available for sale.
See a map of public lands on the auction block
In addition to mandated public land sales, the bill orders more oil and gas leasing (including on the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge), expedites road construction through Gates of the Arctic National Park, and requires massive timber sales in national forests, among other measures. The proposal contains many truly awful things for our environment and shared heritage, but it’s the sale of public lands that has generated the most outrage so far.
Specifics of the public land sales
Language in the bill specifies that the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service must each sell “not less than 0.5 percent and not more than 0.75 percent” of lands it manages to the private sector. When you crunch the numbers, it adds up to a minimum of 2.1 million acres and a maximum of 3.2 million acres that would be subject to “mandatory disposal” (i.e. offered for sale), an area equivalent to between 11 and 17 New York Cities, including all five boroughs.
Some federally protected lands like national parks, national monuments, and designated wilderness areas could not be sold, but Forest Service inventoried roadless areas and National Scenic Areas could be sold. Lands would be offered for sale in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming. Montana, whose members of Congress have voiced firm opposition to public land sales, is exempt.
To say this is an extreme proposal is an understatement. After public lands are sold, they become private lands. Public access would be restricted, fences would go up, and the public’s right to access and use their lands for things like camping, hunting, fishing, birdwatching, hiking, and exploring would be lost forever.
Missing in the debate is that all public lands are also Indigenous ancestral lands, and though tribal consultation is required in the bill, honoring outcomes from consultation is not. Showing more disrespect for Native nations, the bill offers states and local governments the right of first refusal on land sales, but not tribes.
What’s driving the public land sales? Tax cuts and housing?
Congress desperately needs to raise revenue to fund an extension of President Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthy in the reconciliation bill, and though public lands sales could be a way to raise money, Americans of all political stripes overwhelmingly oppose sale of their lands. Recent polling in eight Western states found that only 14% of voters favored selling public lands for housing development.
A summary released on the bill says that public lands offered for sale would be used “for housing” but there’s nothing in the bill text that would actually require consideration of affordability when selling public lands for housing, opening a huge loophole that could lead to trophy homes in natural areas for the same millionaires and billionaires that would stand to benefit most from an extension of President Trump’s tax cuts that the sales would fund. Though the proposed bill would give priority consideration to sell public lands near communities and infrastructure, again, there’s no actual requirement to do so.
Utah politicians’ long history of pushing for the sell-off of public lands
Leadership of the House of Representatives stripped a much smaller public land sale proposal led by Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, and Rep. Mark Amodei, R-NV, from the House budget reconciliation package last month. Senate leadership should do the same.
The House and Senate budget reconciliation bills aren’t the first attempts Utah politicians have made to put large swaths of public land up for sale. In 2017, then-Rep. Jason Chaffetz, R-Utah, introduced a bill to sell more than 3 million acres of public lands across the West, but he withdrew his bill after a massive public outcry.
Sen. Lee told a crowd at a speech before a conservative think tank in 2018 that “Our long-term goal must be the transfer of federal lands to the states. It will take years, and the fight will be brutal.”
Utah officials also appealed directly to the Supreme Court in 2024 challenging public ownership of 18.5 million acres of public lands in the state. The Supreme Court declined to hear the case in January 2025, but Utah officials may re-file that suit in federal district court any day.
Make no mistake, the Senate’s push now is not about affordable housing, it’s about a radical agenda aimed at selling the American public’s lands.
What can you do to stop the sale of public lands?
Call and write your senators today and ask them to strip the proposal to sell public lands from the Senate version of the reconciliation package. Ask your friends and family to do the same. Write letters to the editor of your local paper and post your opposition on social media. Your voice matters, and we thank you for your advocacy.
