A Public Lands Sell-Off Just Got Snuck Into a House Budget Proposal

Sneaky, shady politicians remain sneaky and shady.

Photo by: CFMoto

By: Jonathon Klein

May 8, at 9:16am ET

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Rather than any sort of real hard look at the federal budget, one done so that actual fraud, waste, and abuse is rooted out in order to balance the budget—DOGE absolutely doesn't count—the current makeup of the House, Senate, and Presidency wants to sell your public lands. I mean, how else are they going to come up with the cash they just gave back to millionaires and billionaires through tax cuts?

The House has been hard at work—LOL—trying to put together a new budget that works to "balance the budget" since President Trump was sworn in earlier this year. Many things have been proposed, including selling off your public lands to pay for incoming tax cuts and further spending. It's also why they went on a mass firing spree across the entirety of the federal government. But in recent weeks, after strong opposition by both Democratic and Republican lawmakers, and backed by a growing vocal constituency of outdoor recreators, the sale of public lands was thought to be off the table.

That is, until yesterday, when, under the cloak of secrecy and in the middle of the night, the House Natural Resources Committee approved a budget that would sell off 11,000 acres of land across Nevada and Utah.

Great work, Congress! You've set yourselves the task of destroying the single thing that everyone can agree on: Public lands are good.

Our friends over at Outdoor Life had the first story, stating, "The amendment, offered by Republicans Mark Amodei of Nevada and Celeste Maloy of Utah, would sell about 11,000 acres of BLM and Forest Service land in Nevada and Utah. The land-sale amendment was offered at nearly midnight in a marathon committee meeting, in which Democrats offered some 140 amendments to soften some of the provisions of the budget bill. Each of those amendments was voted down by the Republican majority, which declined to debate any of the provisions."

And, indeed, the Republicans in the House that are pushing for these land conveyances (sales) are being told that they should not engage in public debate, nor discourse about it given the political volatility about public land sales. Read: the folks who are proposing these public land sales know they're radioactive, they know the people don't support them, so if they don't talk about it, they can't feel the pressure from their own constituents. In other words, they don't care that you love and enjoy them.

They're going to do what they want, and what their corporate masters want. And that's sell them off to the highest bidder.

Outdoor Life continues, adding, "The land-sale amendment was the only addition to the bill, and was offered, and accepted by the committee after more than 12 hours of debate. Sale of federal land to help balance the budget has been a priority for a number of Western Republicans, most notably the chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, Utah’s Mike Lee." I've pleaded with Senator Lee multiple times on these very pages. He, like his colleagues, doesn't care about public lands, even though they're Utah's primary revenue driver.

The passing of this budget by this specific committee is an affront to public lands everywhere, as well as those who use them to recreate. And again, public lands enjoy near-universal positive public sentiment. No one, aside from the lawmakers who'd line their pockets by selling these lands to developers and mineral and gas extractors, wants to see them sold. That sort of public sentiment is unheard of in modern US politics. Yet, here we are, attempting to sell public lands so the rich can be a tiny bit richer and the average American worse off, as they don't have access to their dirt biking, hunting, fishing, camping, hiking, or anything else grounds.

Please, I implore you. Call your national representatives. Call your local representatives. Call anyone and help ensure we still have public lands going forward.