Senate Republicans eye public land sales in 'big, beautiful bill'

The Senate version of President Trump's tax and spending bill seeks to sell off more than 2 million acres of federal lands to build affordable housing.

A provision in the text released late Wednesday calls for the sales of between 2.2 million and 3.3 million acres of land under the jurisdiction of the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service.

Lands in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Idaho, Nevada, New Mexico, Oregon, Utah, Washington state and Wyoming would be eligible.

This represents a break with the House, which approved legislation that did not include provisions to sold off public lands, despite a push from some lawmakers to add land sales provisions.

Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.) in particular has opposed the public land sales push.

In a video accompanying the newly released text on Wednesday, Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Mike Lee (R-Utah) lamented federal control of public lands — and also stressed that the measure would not apply to national parks or other similar protected lands.

“We’re opening underused federal land to expand housing, support local development and get Washington, D.C., out of the way of communities that are just trying to grow,” Lee said.

“This does not touch national parks, national monuments or wilderness. We’re talking about isolated parcels that are difficult to manage or better suited for housing and infrastructure,” he added.

The move, as well as other provisions in the legislation, drew pushback from Democrats and conservation advocates.

“Senate Republicans have finally said the quiet part out loud: They want to put millions of acres of our public lands up in a fire sale, destroy the investments that have created thousands of manufacturing and clean energy jobs – including in their home states, and obliterate programs that lower energy costs for everyday Americans,” Sen. Martin Heinrich (D-N.M.) said in a statement.

The Senate version of the spending bill also includes other provisions that had dropped out of the House text, including requiring opportunities to drill in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska — an area of the Western Arctic set aside by President Harding as an emergency fuel supply. The text also reinstates a provision granting a key approval for a mining road in Alaska.

Like its House companion, the Senate version of the bill also adds opportunities to drill in a contentious wildlife refuge in the Arctic, adds fees for developing renewable energy on public lands and seeks to increase opportunities and decrease fees for producing fossil energy on public lands and in public waters.

Updated at 10:58 a.m. EDT