WASHINGTON— More than 100 organizations urged senate leadership today to remove the unprecedented sell-off of millions of acres of public lands from the Senate budget bill.
Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), chairman of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, wants to mandate the sell-off of millions of acres of public lands across 11 western states (Utah, Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Washington and Wyoming). The bill text released on June 11, which was updated in recent days, targets both Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service land, and mandates the sale of between 2 million and 3 million acres of public lands.
“Sen. Lee’s never-ending attacks on public lands continue. His hostility stands in stark contrast with Americans’ deep and abiding love of public lands. Sen. Lee’s plan puts Utah’s redrock country in the crosshairs of unchecked development,” said Travis Hammill, D.C. director for the Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance. “In Utah and the West, public lands are the envy of the country — but Sen. Lee is willing to sacrifice the places where people recreate, where they hunt and fish, and where they make a living — to pay for tax cuts for the ultra-wealthy. The Southern Utah Wilderness Alliance, our members, and our partners will work to defeat this bill.”
“Today these massive public lands sell-off is a line in the Republicans’ budget bill, but for too many tomorrows it will be trophy homes, deforestation, pollution and extinction for America’s wildlife,” said Randi Spivak, public lands policy director for the Center for Biological Diversity. “The cost of selling off our public lands to benefit a handful of industries and ultra-wealthy individuals is too high to count. Our national heritage is at stake and Americans deserve better.”
Today’s letter states, “We strongly oppose any attempts to recklessly sell public lands through legislative shortcuts like budget reconciliation, which bypass public input, environmental review, and accountability. Doing so threatens public access, undermines responsible land management, puts environmental values, cultural resources, and endangered species at risk along with clean drinking water for 60 million Americans and betrays the public’s trust.
“This bill will primarily benefit real estate developers and private-equity speculators rather than addressing real housing needs. While Senator Lee attempts to make his bill more palatable by claiming that it will create opportunities for affordable housing, it does no such thing. There is no requirement that any housing built in response to this bill be affordable or meet any affordable housing requirements. There is no provision to prevent lands sold under Lee’s bill from being developed into high-end vacation homes, Airbnbs, or luxury housing projects, which would be especially desirable near scenic or high-demand areas.
Selling off public lands is short-sighted, self-serving and irreversible. These lands belong to all Americans. Once they’re sold, they’re gone for good – fences go up, access disappears and they are lost to the public forever. Westerners and people across the country overwhelmingly support the protection of public lands and have consistently rejected attempts to sell them off. Time and again, the public has made it clear: our forests, desert lands and open spaces are not and should not be for sale.”
