Senate GOP plan would sell millions of acres of Western public land

[highplainsdem]

Source: Washington Post

Senate Republicans have proposed selling off up to 3.3 million acres of federally owned land in 11 Western states, according to a draft legislative text offered as part of their spending and tax cut bill, prompting an outcry from conservationists and Democratic lawmakers.

According to a budget blueprint released Wednesday evening by the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the federal government would be required to sell off between 2.2 and 3.3 million acres of land owned by the Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service over the next five years.

The proposal stipulates that the sold land will have to be used to develop housing or “community development needs,” which it said could be defined by the secretaries of the Interior or Agriculture departments. The 11 states that would be affected by the proposal are Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington, and Wyoming.

Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah), who chairs the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said in a statement Wednesday that the draft legislative text would turn “federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families.”

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Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/climate-environment/2025/06/12/public-land-sales-proposal-senate-republicans-western-us/

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Bullshit. This will all go to benefit the rich while stealing from American citizens.

[turbinetree]

1. Hey Mike Lee................pound sand with your gaslighting bull shit.................people pay fees to see their /our

parks asshole................you really are a traitor...............why must you ask ...............because you support a orange hair traitor............a 34 count convicted felon.........and you voted to to not impeach that traitor not once but twice............so again pound sand............I think the public should demand that you give up your health care and pay back all that taxpayer money to give you health care...........and your salary.........to save the country money.....

[Attilatheblond]

2. Is part of Trump/Miller's action to threaten free speech & abuse military against peaceful citizens a distraction

from plans to give corporations their wish list of bulldozing public lands/forests?

[Passages]

3. They won't be satisfied until they destroy/own everything.

[LauraInLA]

4. Trying to think of federal land in California that would be suitable for housing, given the wildfire risk....

[Blackjackdavey]

5. What about the mule?

Are we to believe they'll be selling five acre plots to families and individuals?

[moose65]

6. Ridiculous

For a lot of reasons, this is crazy. But one of the main ones is that a lot of federal land is very isolated - think of all the millions of acres of land in Alaska that the federal government owns. Just who, exactly, is going to live in "housing" on that property?

I thought the Forest Service managed forests for our benefit - allowing selective harvesting from time to time. Also, communities near national forests and national parks depend on tourists for much of their income. If that land is sold, the tourists will vanish.

Sounds like another plot for the rich to buy up mineral-rich land and exploit it.