Mike Lee reinstates language to sell Utah public land in Trump tax bill

Yahoo

a day ago

WASHINGTON — Sen. Mike Lee, R-Utah, reinstated language to make public land in Utah eligible for sale, adding the proposal back to President Donald Trump's massive tax package after it was removed by GOP leaders in the House last month.
The proposal would pave the way to sell off a small percentage of Utah's public lands, as well as other Western states, to be used for affordable housing and increase revenue for conservation projects. The public land sale proposal is tucked into a larger section of energy-related provisions headed by Lee as chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, which released its portion of Trump's reconciliation bill on Wednesday.
'This is President Trump's agenda: cut the Green New Scam, reduce the deficit, and unleash American energy,' Lee said in a statement. 'We're cutting billions in unused Biden-era climate slush funds, opening up energy and resource development, turning federal liabilities into taxpayer value, while making housing more affordable for hardworking American families. This is how we make government smaller, freer, and work for Americans.'
The move comes after the House stripped language to sell more than 211,000 acres across Utah and Nevada, an amendment led by Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, who said she drafted the provision upon request from local officials. However, the language was ultimately removed from the House version amid pushback from some Republicans as well as concerns it did not adhere to strict reconciliation rules.
Under the reconciliation process, all provisions in the massive package must adhere to what is known as the 'Byrd rule,' which prohibits policies that are unrelated to budget changes or that outweigh budgetary effects.
To comply with the Byrd rule, Lee made substantive changes to Maloy's amendment that would refrain from using specific maps to target land in the western states. The updated language also excludes specific acreage, instead instructing the interior secretary to sell off between just 0.5% to 0.75% of federal lands in specific states.
The states listed include Utah as well as Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington, and Wyoming.
However, the bill carves out specific guardrails for what land can be sold, excluding at least 15 categories of protected land from the list. That means national parks, monuments, and land dedicated to wilderness reserves would not be included.
Instead, GOP aides stressed it would only sell 'unused or underused federal lands adjacent to cities or metropolitan areas.'
To adhere to Byrd Rule requirements that policies must contribute to deficit reduction, the provision would stipulate that the money made from land sales goes toward conservation efforts, maintenance projects, infrastructure improvements for roads and utilities, and school funding.
Maloy worked with Lee to draft the updated version of the land sales to be included in the final package, arguing it was crucial to affordable housing projects in the two western states. The proposal was also backed by Trump, who campaigned on the issue throughout the 2024 election.
About 63% of Utah's land is owned by the federal government, the most of any state in the country aside from Nevada. But the initial proposal was met with pushback from some Republicans who have historically opposed public land sales, such as Rep. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., the co-chairman of the newly created Public Lands Caucus.
Lee's office worked closely with Montana Sens. Steve Daines and Tim Sheehy to assuage concerns from the state delegation about public land sales. The reconciliation language exempts Montana from any sales, but much of the framework was inspired by the Montana senators' suggestions to ease concerns about lack of a public process.
The provision would require the interior secretary to consult with state and local governments as well as any Indian tribes before facilitating any sort of sale, according to the bill. That way, aides noted, it created a 'public participant process.'
Democrats have also expressed opposition to the proposal, including Sen. Catherine Masto Cortez, D-Nevada, who contended much of the land being sold couldn't be converted into housing anyway.
'Their reconciliation package included federal land sales…that weren't even near areas where you could actually do affordable housing,' Masto said to Interior Secretary Doug Burgum during a Senate hearing on Wednesday. The land is 'in the middle of the desert. There's no infrastructure. I don't know any builder who is going to build housing in the middle of the desert, it makes no sense.'
The proposal is also likely to face pushback from some public lands organizations. More than 100 groups penned a letter to Lee and other Senate leadership earlier this week urging them not to include language that would greenlight any land sales.
However, GOP aides argued the land sales would help with housing affordability crises in Western states, especially for those who live close to national parks where housing prices are expensive.
The public land sales proposal is tucked into a larger section of energy-related provisions, which also includes provisions paving the way for increased lease sales in Alaska, permitting reform, repealing Biden-era clean energy policies, and more.
The full section must now be approved by the Senate parliamentarian, who will determine whether the contents adhere to the Byrd Rule and can be included in the final reconciliation package.