Latest news with #WesternGovernors
The Independent
9 minutes ago
- Politics
- The Independent
GOP plan to sell more than 2 million acres of federal lands is found to violate Senate rules
A plan to sell more than 2 million acres of federal lands has been ruled out of Republicans' big tax and spending cut bill after the Senate parliamentarian determined the proposal by Senate Energy Chairman Mike Lee would violate the chamber's rules. Lee, a Utah Republican, has proposed selling public lands in the West to states or other entities for use as housing or infrastructure. The plan would revive a longtime ambition of Western conservatives to cede lands to local control after a similar proposal failed in the House earlier this year. The proposal received a mixed reception Monday from the governors of Western states. New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham, a Democrat, called it problematic in her state because of the close relationship residents have with public lands. Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon, a Republican, voiced qualified support. 'On a piece-by-piece basis where states have the opportunity to craft policies that make sense ... we can actually allow for some responsible growth in areas with communities that are landlocked at this point,' he said at a news conference in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where the Western Governors' Association was meeting. Lee, in a post on X Monday night, said he would keep trying. 'Housing prices are crushing families and keeping young Americans from living where they grew up. We need to change that,'' he wrote, adding that a revised plan would remove all U.S. Forest Service land from possible sale. Sales of sites controlled by the U.S. Bureau of Land Management would be significantly reduced, Lee said, so that only land within 5 miles of population centers could be sold. Environmental advocates celebrated the ruling late Monday by Senate Parliamentarian Elizabeth MacDonough, but cautioned that Lee's proposal was far from dead. 'This is a victory for the American public, who were loud and clear: Public lands belong in public hands, for current and future generations alike,'' said Tracy Stone-Manning, president of The Wilderness Society. 'Our public lands are not for sale.' Carrie Besnette Hauser, president and CEO of the nonprofit Trust for Public Land called the procedural ruling in the Senate 'an important victory in the fight to protect America's public lands from short-sighted proposals that would have undermined decades of bipartisan work to protect, steward and expand access to the places we all share.' 'But make no mistake: this threat is far from over,' Hauser added. 'Efforts to dismantle our public lands continue, and we must remain vigilant as proposals now under consideration," including plans to roll back the bipartisan Great American Outdoors Act and cut funding for land and water conservation, make their way through Congress, she said. MacDonough, the Senate parliamentarian, also ruled out a host of other Republican-led provisions Monday night, including construction of a mining road in Alaska and changes to speed permitting of oil and gas leases on federal lands. While the parliamentarian's rulings are advisory, they are rarely, if ever, ignored. Lawmakers are using a budget reconciliation process to bypass the Senate filibuster to pass President Donald Trump's tax-cut package by a self-imposed July Fourth deadline. Lee's plan revealed sharp disagreement among Republicans who support wholesale transfers of federal property to spur development and generate revenue, and other lawmakers who are staunchly opposed. Land in 11 Western states from Alaska to New Mexico would be eligible for sale. Montana was carved out of the proposal after lawmakers there objected. In states such as Utah and Nevada, the government controls the vast majority of lands, protecting them from potential exploitation but hindering growth. " Washington has proven time and again it can't manage this land. This bill puts it in better hands,' Lee said in announcing the plan. Housing advocates have cautioned that federal land is not universally suitable for affordable housing. Some of the parcels up for sale in Utah and Nevada under a House proposal were far from developed areas. New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, the ranking Democrat on the energy committee, said Lee's plan would exclude Americans from places where they fish, hunt and camp. 'I don't think it's clear that we would even get substantial housing as a result of this,' Heinrich said earlier this month. 'What I know would happen is people would lose access to places they know and care about and that drive our Western economies.'
Fast Company
3 hours ago
- Business
- Fast Company
Thousands of miles of federal lands in the U.S. could be up for sale. Here's where Western governors stand on the issue
A Republican-sponsored proposal before Congress to mandate the sale of federal public lands received a mixed reception Monday from the governors of Western states. A budget proposal from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee would mandate the sale of more than 3,125 square miles (8,093 square kilometers) of federal lands to state or other entities. It was included recently in a draft provision of the GOP's sweeping tax cut package. At a summit Monday of Western state governors, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the approach is problematic in New Mexico because of the close relationship residents have with those public lands. 'I'm open' to the idea, said Lujan Grisham, a second-term Democratic governor and former congresswoman. 'Except here.' 'Our public lands, we have a very strong relationship with the openness, and they belong to all of us,' said Lujan Grisham, who was announcing written recommendations Monday on affordable housing strategies from the Western Governors' Association. 'And selling that to the private sector without a process, without putting New Mexicans first, is, for at least for me as a governor, going to be problematic.' Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum was among the leaders from several federal agencies who attended the meeting that runs through Tuesday. He has touted the many potential uses for public lands that include recreation, logging and oil and gas production, saying it could boost local economies. Several hundred protesters in downtown Santa Fe denounced efforts that might privatize federal public lands, chanting 'not for sale' and carrying signs reading 'This land belongs to you and me' and 'keep our public land free for future generations.' Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon voiced qualified support for plans to tap federal land for development. 'On a piece-by-piece basis where states have the opportunity to craft policies that make sense … we can actually allow for some responsible growth in areas with communities that are landlocked at this point,' he said at a news conference outside the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. 'There may be value there.' Lee has said federal land sales under his proposal would target 'isolated parcels' that could be used for housing or infrastructure, and would not include national parks, national monuments or wilderness. Land in 11 Western states from Alaska to New Mexico would be eligible for sale. Montana was carved out of the proposal after its lawmakers objected. In some states, such as Utah and Nevada, the government controls the vast majority of lands, protecting them from potential exploitation but hindering growth.
Washington Post
8 hours ago
- Business
- Washington Post
Governors of Western states give mixed reactions to proposed federal land sell-off
SANTA FE, N.M. — A Republican-sponsored proposal before Congress to mandate the sale of federal public lands received a mixed reception Monday from the governors of Western states. A budget proposal from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee would mandate the sale of more than 3,125 square miles (8,093 square kilometers) of federal lands to state or other entities. It was included recently in a draft provision of the GOP's sweeping tax cut package.
The Independent
10 hours ago
- Business
- The Independent
Governors of Western states give mixed reactions to proposed federal land sell-off
A Republican-sponsored proposal before Congress to mandate the sale of federal public lands received a mixed reception Monday from the governors of Western states. A budget proposal from Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee would mandate the sale of more than 3,125 square miles (8,093 square kilometers) of federal lands to state or other entities. It was included recently in a draft provision of the GOP's sweeping tax cut package. At a summit Monday of Western state governors, New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said the approach is problematic in New Mexico because of the close relationship residents have with those public lands. 'I'm open' to the idea, said Lujan Grisham, a second-term Democratic governor and former congresswoman. 'Except here.' 'Our public lands, we have a very strong relationship with the openness, and they belong to all of us,' said Lujan Grisham, who was announcing written recommendations Monday on affordable housing strategies from the Western Governors' Association. 'And selling that to the private sector without a process, without putting New Mexicans first, is, for at least for me as a governor, going to be problematic.' Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum was among the leaders from several federal agencies who attended the meeting that runs through Tuesday. He has touted the many potential uses for public lands that include recreation, logging and oil and gas production, saying it could boost local economies. Several hundred protesters in downtown Santa Fe denounced efforts that might privatize federal public lands, chanting 'not for sale' and carrying signs reading 'This land belongs to you and me' and 'keep our public land free for future generations.' Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon voiced qualified support for plans to tap federal land for development. 'On a piece-by-piece basis where states have the opportunity to craft policies that make sense ... we can actually allow for some responsible growth in areas with communities that are landlocked at this point,' he said at a news conference outside the Georgia O'Keeffe Museum in Santa Fe. 'There may be value there.' Lee has said federal land sales under his proposal would target 'isolated parcels' that could be used for housing or infrastructure, and would not include national parks, national monuments or wilderness. Land in 11 Western states from Alaska to New Mexico would be eligible for sale. Montana was carved out of the proposal after its lawmakers objected. In some states, such as Utah and Nevada, the government controls the vast majority of lands, protecting them from potential exploitation but hindering growth.
Washington Post
19 hours ago
- Politics
- Washington Post
Trump to strip protections from millions of acres of national forests
A decades-old rule protecting tens millions of acres of pristine national forest land, including 9 million acres in Alaska's Tongass National Forest, would be rescinded under plans announced Monday by the Trump administration. Speaking at a meeting of Western governors in New Mexico, Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins said the administration would begin the process of rolling back protections for nearly 59 million roadless acres of the National Forest system.
