Latest news with #CelesteMaloy
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Outdoor Groups Cry Foul After House Republicans Hold Midnight Vote to Sell Public Lands
House Republicans have advanced a plan to sell off hundreds of thousands of acres of federal public lands in Nevada and Utah, drawing swift criticism from conservation groups, outdoor recreation advocates, and some state and local leaders. The amendment, introduced by Representatives Mark Amodei (R-NV) and Celeste Maloy (R-UT), was quietly added to a larger budget reconciliation bill during a late-night House Natural Resources Committee session earlier this week. Lawmakers voted to approve the amendment around midnight with little debate and no opportunity for public input. The bill must next face votes from both the full House and Senate before moving to the President's desk for final signature. Outdoor advocates are urging the public to contact representatives and oppose the amendment's inclusion in the reconciliation bill. Why DC Is Better (and Worse) Than You Think: An Outsider Summits Capitol Hill The proposal authorizes the sale of up to 200,000 acres in Clark County, Nev., and about 350,000 acres in Pershing County, Nev. It also targets more than 10,000 acres of public lands in Utah. Many of these parcels are managed by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service, and overlap with popular recreation areas used for mountain biking, climbing, paddling, and other outdoor activities. Supporters of the plan argue that selling these lands would generate an estimated $18 billion in revenue to help offset tax cuts and fund energy projects. They point out that the targeted parcels represent a small fraction of total federal land holdings in these states. 'Not all federal lands have the same value,' Representative Maloy said in committee. 'Some should not be available for disposal. We all agree on that. However, in both Democratic and Republican administrations, for decades, we've been disposing of appropriate lands in a manner that's consistent with what I propose to do here.' However, the plan has faced bipartisan opposition. Conservation groups warn that the affected areas include important recreation access points and wildlife habitat. Critics raised concerns about the land sales and the process used to pass the amendment. The vote happened around midnight with no notice or chance for public review. Every Republican except Rep. Jeff Hurd (R-CO) voted for the amendment. The full package, including the land sale, passed with support from all Republicans and Rep. Adam Gray (D-CA). The bill also allows industries to pay to skip judicial review of environmental assessments under NEPA. Conservation groups warn this could weaken protections and reduce public oversight of development projects. The reconciliation bill, including the public land sale amendment, must now go before the full House of Representatives for a vote. If it passes the House, the bill will move to the Senate, where it will face further debate, possible amendments, and a final vote. If both chambers approve the bill, they will send it to the president to sign into law. Lawmakers could still remove or modify the land sale and NEPA provisions during this process. Advocacy groups say this is a critical window for public input and political pressure, as negotiations and revisions are likely before the bill reaches a final form. Until a final bill is signed, the proposed land sales are not enacted. Stakeholders are urging continued outreach to elected officials to influence the outcome before it becomes law. Outdoor recreation and conservation groups are encouraging the public to take action by contacting their lawmakers. Organizations like the Outdoor Alliance (OA) are urging individuals to write directly to their congressional representatives to demand the removal of the land sale and NEPA rollback provisions from the bill. OA emphasizes that personal, direct messages are more effective than form letters. You can find your representative through the government's index. Advocates stress that public lands deserve transparent review and public involvement. These decisions made behind closed doors without input from communities or stakeholders seem to follow the same path as other recent anti-public-lands policies. GearJunkie will continue to report on this issue as it develops. Trump Proposes $1B Cut to National Parks, Transferring Ownership to States
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Proposed sale of Utah public land pulled from Congress' budget bill
Utah Republican Rep. Celeste Maloy tries to reason with an unruly crowd during a town hall event at the University of Utah on Thursday, March 20, 2025. (Kyle Dunphey/Utah News Dispatch) Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy's proposal to sell off nearly 11,500 acres of public land in southwestern Utah was shot down this week after receiving bipartisan pushback in Congress. The proposal, which identified parcels owned by the Bureau of Land Management to sell to Washington and Beaver counties, the Washington County Water Conservancy District and the city of St. George, was included by Maloy as part of Congress' budget package. But on Wednesday evening, Montana Republican Rep. Ryan Zinke, who previously said selling public lands is a line he would not cross, rallied support from a bipartisan group of lawmakers to strip Maloy's proposal from the budget bill during a House Rules Committee meeting. Maloy's office did not immediately respond to a request for comment Thursday morning. Officials eye airport expansion, reservoirs and new roads under Maloy's proposed public land sale Maloy, in an earlier statement, said the land would help the southwest corner of the state expand water, transportation and housing infrastructure, as the region deals with rapid population growth. St. George was eying an airport expansion; the Washington County Water Conservancy District had plans to build a new reservoir; Washington County was looking to widen some existing roads. In a statement, St. George city leaders thanked Maloy for working on the amendment, and they plan to have more talks with lawmakers on the issue. 'We were disappointed that some groups falsely presented this amendment as if it were a land grab,' city leaders said. 'In actuality, the amendment was intended to protect existing critical infrastructure or future critical infrastructure that would be built on already disturbed public lands. Only approximately nine acres would have been used for attainable housing, at a spot adjacent to a future cemetery and an existing residential subdivision.' The Washington County Water Conservancy District issued a similar statement, telling Utah News Dispatch it respects Congress' decision to remove Maloy's amendment. 'We appreciate Senator Maloy's efforts to facilitate the availability of federal lands for exchange in a manner that would benefit the water district,' the statement reads. 'The water district remains committed to securing the necessary federal lands in Washington County for critical water infrastructure projects through established, traditional processes.' Maloy's amendment identified a total of 70 parcels to be sold in Utah. The proposal had a far greater impact on Nevada, with Republican Rep. Mark Amodei earmarking nearly 450,000 acres for disposal in his state. The proposal received broad criticism from environmental groups and public land advocates, who said the bill lacked language mandating what the land would be used for. They argued there was nothing stopping the governments from purchasing the land, then using it for something other than the originally stated purpose. And some of the land abutted rivers and popular recreation areas, including Zion National Park, prompting concerns over access and environmental harm. The proposal also had its critics in Congress, on both sides of the isle, including Zinke, who called it his 'San Juan Hill,' referring to a famous Spanish-American War battle. 'I do not support the widespread sale or transfer of public lands. Once the land is sold, we will never get it back. God isn't creating more land,' Zinke said in a news release on Wednesday. SUBSCRIBE: GET THE MORNING HEADLINES DELIVERED TO YOUR INBOX Environmental groups celebrated the decision, issuing a flurry of statements and reactions. Travis Hammill, the Washington D.C. director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, said Maloy is the 'latest in a long list of politicians with the bad idea to try and sell off public lands.' 'The through line of those failed efforts is this: love of public lands transcends geography and political party. Americans don't want to see these lands sold off and time and time again have risen up to make their voices heard,' Hammill said. Kyle Roerink executive director of the Great Basin Water Network, said Zinke's move to tank the disposal 'sends a strong message to lawmakers of all stripes: We can never break the public trust and the Colorado River for billionaire tax breaks.' Others noted the bipartisan opposition to the amendment, including Patrick Donnelly, Great Basin director for the Center for Biological Diversity, who called the attempt 'appalling' and 'Gilded Age-level stuff.' 'Republicans' public lands fire sale was so greedy even their own caucus wouldn't support it,' Donnelly said in an emailed statement. 'I hope people remember it the next time Republicans try to pretend they care about public lands.' According to the amendment's text, about 70 parcels were identified to be sold off to four entities, at market value. Consider: U.S. House Republicans push through massive tax and spending bill slashing Medicaid Washington County would have been allowed to purchase 23 parcels covering about 6,492 acres. The Washington County Water Conservancy District would have been allowed to purchase 22 parcels amounting to about 4,375 acres. St. George would have been allowed to purchase 23 parcels amounting to about 520 acres. Beaver County would have been allowed to purchase three parcels amounting to roughly 62 acres. The amendment was a small part of what President Donald Trump has called the 'big, beautiful bill' that has been in the works for months. The bill extends Trump's 2017 tax law, cuts steps out of the energy permitting process, increases defense and border security spending, and makes substantial changes to Medicaid. The bill cleared the House early Thursday and is headed to the Senate. SUPPORT: YOU MAKE OUR WORK POSSIBLE
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Opinion: Now's the time to fight for your public lands
All Americans are public land owners. Here in Utah, that means we own about 37.4 million acres of the land in the state. Our public lands attract millions of visitors from all over the world, eager to explore our many unique wonders and beautiful landscapes. Despite this, Utah is fast gaining a reputation nationally as the champion of the movement to sell our public lands. Our federally elected officials are pushing this as a solution for the country's affordable housing and national debt issues. Representative Celeste Maloy proposed an amendment to a recent budget bill that could result in the sale of about 11,500 acres of BLM land in southwestern Utah. This follows Senators Mike Lee and John Curtis voting against a recent budget resolution amendment in April that would prevent the sale of public lands through the budget reconciliation process in an effort to leave this option on the table. Furthermore, Lee has long been pushing for the passage of his HOUSES Act at the federal level, which would allow parcels of federal land to be purchased by a state or unit of local government at a reduced price to give them flexibility to address housing constraints with few guardrails. These types of land sales/transfers strike me as more of a short-term cash grab rather than an actual long-term solution that will fix our housing or debt problems. To complicate matters further, several federal land management agencies such as the USFS, NPS and BLM laid off thousands of employees as a result of DOGE mandates, despite the fact that these agencies have long been under-resourced. And while it's uncertain whether these agencies will be able to backfill these positions, I know I'll be impacted as a hunter and outdoor recreationist. In the short-term, I expect some of the trails, campgrounds and trailhead restrooms won't be maintained or even open for use. I also anticipate a more difficult summer wildfire season due to the layoffs, which further risks the closure of some of the areas I enjoy exploring most. In the long run, fewer federal land management employees could lead to a long-term decline in the maintenance and upkeep of our public lands. This in turn will make it easier to persuade the public that these lands need to be privatized and sold off since the feds can no longer effectively manage them. As a staunch public lands advocate, this greatly concerns me. However, it's trivial when compared to the threat our wildlife faces if we begin selling public land. These lands provide summer range, winter range and migration corridors for several species across the state. Selling and developing public land will result in the loss of critical habitat and negatively impact the populations of countless species of wildlife here in Utah. Our public lands are a uniquely American idea due to the 'multiple use' mandates we have in place to manage them. This requires our federal land management agencies to consider the (often competing) demands of different constituencies when designing public land management plans. And while each constituent group never gets 100% of what they want, the compromises that result from this process allow us all to benefit from our public lands. But if our legislators begin to deviate from this process, they will establish a dangerous precedent that will make it much easier to sell our public lands. The next time you're hiking up Millcreek Canyon, scouting the Uintas for your upcoming fall elk hunt or setting up your tent while camping with the family on BLM land in southern Utah, I encourage you to look around and really take in the scenery. Ask yourself: does this place look like it could use a mountain resort? A housing development? Maybe a few oil rigs? Would that improve my experience? If you find yourself answering no, you should reach out to both your state and federal representatives to remind them you oppose the sale of our public lands. If we don't speak up in support for our public lands now, we risk losing access to these places as we know them permanently. Because once they leave the public domain, they aren't coming back.
Yahoo
22-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Republicans remove language in Trump budget bill to sell public lands in Utah
WASHINGTON — Republicans stripped language to sell off about 11,000 acres of public lands in Utah to help pay for President Donald Trump's massive tax package in a last-minute alteration to the budget framework released on Wednesday night. The change was revealed in Republicans' manager's amendment, a procedural tool to make key changes to provisions in the bill before it reaches the floor. The amendment was negotiated among rank-and-file Republicans, House GOP leaders, and Trump himself over the last few weeks in order to get all corners of the party on board to advance the president's agenda. In the manager's amendment that was published just after 9 p.m. EDT on Wednesday, Republican leaders removed language from the budget resolution to greenlight public land sales in Utah and Nevada totaling more than 211,000 acres across the two states. The original amendment was led by Utah Rep. Celeste Maloy, R-Utah, who drafted the provision upon request from officials in Washington and Beaver counties, who would've facilitated the sale. 'Washington County and Beaver County are landlocked and growing quickly but cannot function because of endless red tape on federal lands,' Maloy told the Deseret News earlier this month. 'At their request, I introduced an amendment to convey, at fair market value, targeted land — land needed by local governments for infrastructure.' About 63% of Utah's land is owned by the federal government, the most of any state in the country aside from Nevada. The lands that would have been sold make up 'only a third of one percent of federal lands in the state,' according to Maloy. Maloy told the Deseret News she was informed the language would be stripped from the final bill before it was released. The 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. 'There's a lot of frustration down in the West. I understand that,' Zinke said in response to the amendment earlier this month. 'But I prefer the management scheme. And I give an example as a hotel — if you don't like the management of a hotel, don't sell the hotel. Change the management. That's where I sit on that position.'
E&E News
19-05-2025
- Politics
- E&E News
Bills to curb rulemaking, red tape get markup
The House Oversight and Government Reform committee will vote on a roster of bills that target federal regulations and permitting. Lawmakers will vote on six bills that 'rein in regulatory overreach by the administrative state,' according to a release from committee Republicans. The anti-regulatory push is not new to the House; Republicans have included a measure in their budget reconciliation megabill that would give Congress the final sign-off on major agency rules. Advertisement Up for markup this week is H.R. 689, the 'Full Responsibility and Expedited Enforcement (FREE) Act,' from Rep. Celeste Maloy (R-Utah).
