Contentious public lands sale axed from Congress’ ‘Big, Beautiful Bill’

A proposal to sell off at least 2 million acres of public lands for housing throughout the West appears to be out of Congress’ “Big, Beautiful Bill” following bipartisan outcry.

The Senate parliamentarian determined that the provisions violated the Byrd Rule, a procedure meant to keep proposals unrelated to Congress’ budget out of the reconciliation bill. A previous, Nevada-specific attempt to sell off public lands in the House, led by Rep. Mark Amodei, R-Nev., similarly was removed before the bill passed.

The news comes after Sen. Mike Lee, the Republican from Utah behind the bill, conceded that 2.2 million to 3.3 million acres was too much land to consider selling off. In response to days of criticism online from hunters and ranchers, Lee said he would remove all U.S. Forest Service land from consideration and limit the proposal to Bureau of Land Management land within 5 miles of population centers.

“Yes, the Byrd Rule limits what can go in the reconciliation bill, but I’m doing everything I can to support President Trump and move this forward,” Lee wrote in an X post Monday evening. Lee, who did not respond to the Las Vegas Review-Journal’s request for comment, doubled down on his amended provisions in an interview with Turning Point founder Charlie Kirk on Tuesday afternoon.

Lee will likely reintroduce the revised provisions, which would again be subject to review by the parliamentarian. Senate Republicans can only override the parliamentarian’s decisions with 60 votes.

In separate statements, Reps. Dina Titus and Susie Lee, both D-Nev., said they will keep a close eye on what happens. Nevada’s Democratic delegation led opposition to Amodei’s proposal in the House.

“Know that Nevadans are watching and that we see right through Senator Lee’s maneuvers,” Titus said in an X post Tuesday morning. “I’ll continue fighting any provision that sells off our public land without our consent and without adequate safeguards for our limited water resources.”

‘Public lands belong in public hands’

Selling off public lands, a long unpopular concept with voters on both sides of the aisle, could have alleviated some tension regarding Las Vegas’ housing shortage, which the real estate industry has blamed on a lack of developable land. Nevada leads the nation as the state with the largest percentage of land owned by the federal government.

Outside the Western Governors’ Association’s annual meeting on Monday in Santa Fe, New Mexico, thousands gathered to protest the public lands sell-off. About 150 did the same near Lake Tahoe.

“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,” Tracy Stone-Manning, who ran the Bureau of Land Management during the Biden administration, said in a statement. “We trust the next politician who wants to sell off public lands will remember that people of all stripes will stand against that idea. Our public lands are not for sale.”

Previously, Mike Lee had accused Stone-Manning, now president of nonprofit The Wilderness Society, of leading a disinformation campaign against the land sale provisions after the organization’s release of a map analyzing what land could be up for sale if the bill passed. Stone-Manning’s organization stood by its analysis.

Nevada’s Democratic delegation had largely decried Mike Lee’s public lands sell-off, with some pointing to the fact that the revenue from the sales would be returned to the Treasury Department rather than the local economy.

Sens. Catherine Cortez Masto and Jacky Rosen, both D-Nev., have pushed for the sale of lands in prior sessions, in both Clark and Washoe counties, though some land would have been conserved in return, and the revenue generated would have returned to Nevada.

In a statement, Cortez Masto said Mike Lee’s proposal was a “nonstarter” that she will push back on. Rosen said it could set a precedent for future public land sales that don’t benefit Nevada financially, or meaningfully consult the state’s leaders.

“If Senate Republicans push to include future versions of this terrible plan in their extreme tax spending bill, I’ll fight to block it every time,” Rosen said.

Contact Alan Halaly at ahalaly@reviewjournal.com. Follow @AlanHalaly on X.