A Public Lands Sell-Off Is Struck From the G.O.P. Policy Bill

New York Times

5 hours ago

Senator Mike Lee, Republican of Utah, said on Saturday evening that he had dropped his contentious plan to sell millions of acres of public lands from the sweeping domestic policy package carrying President Trump's agenda.
Mr. Lee made the announcement on social media after it became clear that the plan faced insurmountable opposition from within his own party. At least four Republican senators from Western states had said they planned to vote for an amendment to strike the proposal from the bill.
The plan had also triggered intense pushback from conservative hunters and outdoorsmen across the American West, who had warned that it threatened the lands where they hunted and fished.
'Over the past several weeks, I've spent a lot of time listening to members of the community, local leaders and stakeholders across the country,' Mr. Lee wrote on X on Saturday. 'While there has been a tremendous amount of misinformation — and in some cases, outright lies — about my bill, many people brought forward sincere concerns.'
The provision would have required the Bureau of Land Management to sell as much as 1.225 million acres of public property in 11 Western states. Proponents had argued that the region has a severe shortage of affordable housing and that developers could build new homes on these tracts.
In his post, Mr. Lee said that, because of the strict rules governing the budgetary process that Republicans are using to pass the bill, he was 'unable to secure clear, enforceable safeguards to guarantee that these lands would be sold only to American families — not to China, not to BlackRock, and not to any foreign interests.'
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