DENVER ‒ Hunters, hikers and campers are breathing a sigh of relief after Congressional maneuvering temporarily halted a controversial proposal requiring the federal government to sell off millions of acres of public lands across the West.
The proposal, a longtime policy priority of Utah Republican Sen. Mike Lee, would have let people or companies buy U.S. Forest Service or Bureau of Land Management land if they agreed to use it to build housing. Lee is the powerful chairman of the Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources.
The Senate parliamentarian late on June 23 ruled that the measure as written could not be included in the Congressional budget reconciliation bill because it requires 60 votes to pass, not just a simple majority. Lee has promised to revise the measure and keep trying.
Advocates say if he does, they will keep fighting it.
“Western voters have made it clear time and again that they want to protect public lands and they do not support selling America’s public lands to private developers,” Jennifer Rokala, executive director of the nonpartisan advocacy group Center for Western Priorities said in a statement. “If Senator Lee or his anti-public lands allies try to bring it back in any form, they will discover the backlash is just as severe.”
The measure’s broad coalition of opponents ‒ which includes podcaster Joe Rogan and conservative rocker Ted Nugent ‒ had argued Lee was improperly using the reconciliation process to avoid public hearings and jam the law through Congress. Many hunters and target shooters feared the measure would reduce their access to public land.
The Forest Service manages 193 million acres of forests and grasslands, while the BLM is responsible for about 245 million acres, and the measure would generally affect lands closest to existing neighborhoods.
Lee’s original plan would have let people and developers buy the federal land if they promised to use it for housing or related development, with the money flowing back to the federal treasury. The measure would have affected only western states, including Utah, Colorado, California and Nevada.
Many conservative lawmakers have long complained that the federal government’s ownership of vast parts of western states has limited growth and prevented development, hurting their economies. Lee’s proposal came as the Trump administration has slashed funding for national parks, and proposed increasing drilling and mining on public lands across the west and in Alaska.
Recreation groups argued that Lee’s original proposal would potentially devastate gateway communities whose economies depend heavily on people using that land to hunt, fish, camp or drive 4x4s. Other critics worried the plan lacked sufficient safeguards preventing private developers from snapping up prime land for mansions or private resorts, worsening existing housing problems.
“There is a true need for public housing in rural communities adjacent to public lands. There’s no fight on that concept,” said Jessica Turner, president of the nonpartisan Outdoor Recreation Roundtable, which counts RV manufacturers, ski areas and mountain bike associations among its members. “It all comes down to using a scalpel, not a hammer and reconciliation is not the place for this debate.”
Turner said the recreation roundtable is working with several Republican senators from the west who oppose Lee’s mass lands selloff, along with other public lands advocates seeking compromise.
Lee in a June 23 social media post said he was open to changing his proposal, and offered a series of alterations that would potentially narrow its scope. It was not immediately clear when the new language would be formally introduced.
Lee added: “Stay tuned. We’re just getting started.”
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Public lands sale proposal raises alarm across Western U.S.
