Public lands sale proposal raises alarm across West

Trevor Hughes

USA TODAY

DENVER – Hunters, hikers and campers are breathing a sigh of relief after Congressional maneuvering temporarily halted a controversial proposal requiring the federal government to sell off millions of acres of public lands across the West.

The proposal, a longtime policy priority of Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, would have let people or companies buy U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land if they agreed to use it to build housing, with the sale funds flowing back to the federal treasury. Lee is the powerful chair of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.

However, the Senate parliamentarian late on June 23 ruled that the measure as written could not be included in the Congressional budget reconciliation bill because it requires 60 votes to pass, not just a simple majority.

The measure’s broad coalition of opponents – which includes podcaster Joe Rogan and conservative rocker Ted Nugent – had argued Lee was improperly using the reconciliation process to avoid holding public hearings and to jam the law through Congress. Many hunters and target shooters feared the measure would reduce their access to public land.

Lee has promised to revise the measure and keep trying. Advocates say if he does, they will keep fighting it.

“Western voters have made it clear time and again that they want to protect public lands and they do not support selling America’s public lands to private developers,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the nonpartisan advocacy group Center for Western Priorities, said in a statement. “If Senator Lee or his anti- public lands allies try to bring it back in any form, they will discover the backlash is just as severe.”

The Forest Service manages 193 million acres of forests and grasslands, while the Bureau of Land Management is responsible for about 245 million acres. The measure would generally affect lands closest to existing neighborhoods. Lee’s original plan affected only western states.

Lee’s proposal came as the Trump administration has slashed funding for national parks and proposed increasing drilling and mining on public lands across the west and in Alaska.“There is a true need for public housing in rural communities adjacent to public lands. There’s no fight on that concept,” said Jessica Turner, president of the nonpartisan Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, which counts RV manufacturers, ski areas and mountain bike associations among its members. “It all comes down to using a scalpel, not a hammer and reconciliation is not the place for this debate.”

Turner said the recreation roundtable is working with several Republican senators from the west who oppose Lee’s mass lands selloff, along with other public lands advocates seeking compromise.

Lee in a June 23 social media post said he was open to changing his proposal, and offered a series of alterations that would potentially narrow its scope. It was not immediately clear when the new language would be formally introduced.

He added: “Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.”